women storming the streets

swarming together

a sea of power

holding signs

holding pleads

holding dreams

and chanting

shouting

desperate

for life

for freedom

for

help

screaming until their throats scratch

and become hoarse

and their voices become

 silent

but no one wants to hear them

no one wants to listen

to the words they have to say

people only want to ignore them

to pretend they don’t exist

so they can make themselves

feel better about what they’ve done

my sisters

standing outside the capitol building

marching up the steps

pleading for their rights

pleading to live

freely

frustrated

tired of

telling the people exactly

what they need

exactly what needs to be done

but

no one is listening

no one wants to hear them

their voices

in texas

a young girl

13

not even old enough to get a job

gets raped

violated

by someone

who abused their power

someone who destroyed

another person’s life

her life

her fresh

young

life

and hurt her in ways

that we can’t even imagine

that we want to pretend

don’t exist

that we want to ignore

but

she

gets

punished

she gets forced

to carry that fetus

to carry that fetus

to carry

that

fetus

to carry that

heavy

reminder

of that man

that monster

who

stole her pride

and innocence

and ripped her to shreds

but she’s

the one who gets

punished

our foremothers

expected better

from this country

when they fought decades ago

for our future

for our children and grandchildren

our foremothers

didn’t want us to go back

to the way things were

before

when we

were nothing

when we were shrugged off

afterthoughts

taken advantage of

for our benefits

just honeys

to win

like prizes at some

sick

perverted

carnival

our foremothers

didn’t want us

to make things worse

than they were

before

to take everything

all of those rights

all of those freedoms

all of that

progress

that they gave to us

that they worked for

that they fought for

that they lived for

 that they died for

and hand it back

to the men at the top

to ruin

the road

that they paved

for us

a woman

miscarries

loses her baby

her beloved baby

that she was looking forward to meeting

her baby that she renovated a room for

spent days looking at paints

and cribs

and she loses it

and she gets blamed for it

she gets

punished

for it

they put her on trial

tell her to tell the truth

she tells

the whole truth

nothing but the truth

but they refuse to listen

they want to

take away her words

take away her emotions

take away

anything that makes her

human

real

make her not human

make her not real

make her a criminal

create someone else

who they can feel better

about hating

about beating down

about publicly shaming

make

someone

else

she’s a criminal

are the words that they burn

into the minds

of every young

impressionable

person

they can prey on

she murdered a baby

did you drink

did you smoke

what did you do

what did you not do

did you eat healthy

did you go to the doctor regularly

what could you have done to stop this

why didn’t you stop this

how could you have not stopped this

how could you let a baby die

you monster

murderer

baby killer

what the hell is wrong with you

why didn’t you do more

you should have done more

guilty

guilty

guilty

a person goes to the doctor

tells the doctor

i don’t want

to have children

can you please perform a hysterectomy

how old are you

the doctor asks

they are young

too young to make this decision

the doctor decides

why do you want this procedure

you’re young

so young

too

young

you have your whole life ahead of you

why don’t you want children

why would you want to do something so

life-altering

the person has had an abortion before

they don’t want to do it again

they don’t want to talk about it

they were hurt

and they want to prevent it from happening

again

they tell the doctor this

but

have you asked your partner

are they okay with this

i don’t think your partner would

be happy if they found out

what if they want a family

i don’t need to ask my partner

the doctor frowns

are you sure

are you really sure

are you absolutely

truly sure

are you sure

yes

i’m sorry

i’m afraid i can’t help you

i’m afraid

i can’t help you

the doctor is not really sorry

not afraid

no

but they are afraid

they are so afraid

we’re all afraid