The Poetic Political
Fumings of a Feisty Feminist
Making waves of change, one poem at a time.
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Ignorance is dangerous.
Stupidity is septic. Idiocy illuminated From which it is reflected. Political pundit Proudly bold proclaims From his purity pulpit Barry Hovis is his name. Nothing about rape Can be consensual This oxymoron moron Is no intellectual. Recently, while discussing a bill that would ban abortions after 8 weeks, Republican Missouri state lawmaker, Barry Hovis, referred to some rapes as being "consensual rapes." https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/444351-gop-lawmaker-says-he-misspoke-when-he-talked-of-consensual-rape
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“Blessed be the fruit”
That bears the joyful child. “Blessed be the fruit" Of woman meek and mild. Forced to be a mother Her choices are forsaken. “Blessed be the fruit” Morality mistaken. “Blessed be the fruit” is a phrase from the book, “The Handmaid’s Tale”. This poem plays on that phrase as a concept of the Forced Birth movement happening in the United States which views women as simply hosts for childbirth. We fail women
Who’ve been raped When we allow the rapist Parental rights. We fail children Born of rape To be raised by the man Who hurt their mother. We fail our country When we create policies Giving privileges to the rapist And punish the victim. Surviving rape and childbirth Only to be victimized again By the government. We fail her ….and the child. https://www.cnn.com/2016/11/17/health/parental-rights-rapists-explainer/index.html Abolition of Abortion
Tony Tinderholt conceived To punish pregnant women Who found themselves in need. A God-fearing conservative Who’s been married just five times Wants to criminalize a woman Limit her freedom and confines. When it’s time to be Pro-life A woman’s not a person Just a womb, a host, a body ‘Cuz freedom's just for virgins. Kill the mother, save the fetus Pro-life is just “forced birth” Restrict, restrain, repress, remand As you subjugate her worth. (Texas lawmakers consider death penalty for women who get abortion.) https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/texas-lawmakers-consider-death-penalty-women-who-get-abortions-n993171 In more ways than one
The journey is dangerous Even more so for women and children. If she survives the train… And starvation… The heat… The cold… The rivers… And wild animals, Only to be greeted Into the arms Of a sexual predator. Hunted And Harmed By the Coyotes The Sheriff’s The Border Agents She is torn apart From the inside. In search of refuge She found hell. Women and children who try to immigrate to the US often find themselves victims of horrid sexual abuse/trauma. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/27/us/immigrant-children-sexual-abuse.html?module=inline Raped by a man.
Forced to give birth. She’s just a baby herself. Violated By a stranger Victimized By the laws Abortion abolished Her rights denied. When personal autonomy Becomes government authority We’ve lost our liberty. https://www.chicagotribune.com/columns/eric-zorn/ct-perspec-zorn-abortion-rape-heartbeat-ohio-child-argentina-20190509-story.html Defined as just “host bodies”
No longer human beings Women are just vessels It’s rather quite intriguing How men get to determine What our lives are all about Ignorance be damned By the stupidity they spout. And therein lies the problem When “hosts” is all they see Ignoring the reality There’s a whole lot more to me. My womb is all that matters I couldn’t possibly be more Incubate the host My one and only chore. Recently, Florida speaker, Jose Oliva referenced women as "host bodies" when talking about abortion. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/florida-speaker-jose-oliva-apologizes-for-using-term-host-body-for-pregnant-women/ Do you hate
When you copulate How you procreate High fertility rate A basic mandate Men must educate Train their prostate Not to ejaculate Don’t have to terminate The function to gestate End abortion debate But if you demonstrate How you inseminate We simply castrate To recapitulate Don’t ejaculate. I wrote this poem after reading this article by a Mormon mom clarifying that unwanted pregnancies could be avoided if men would just not ejaculate. I felt it worthy of a poem. https://www.kansas.com/news/nation-world/national/article218495850.html I’d rather be a corpse
Than a woman any day No one could touch my body Without my final say I’d have more autonomy With legal rights embed Than a real-life living woman Just too bad that I’d be dead. https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2014/8/14/1321787/-When-a-corpse-has-more-rights-than-a-woman It’s really rather funny
That you claim to be pro-life Because your hatred and your anger Have created quite the strife. Death to any woman Who dares decide what’s best For her body and her family Unable to protest. As you alter our democracy Into a harsh theocracy Founded on misogyny Your holy-hailed hypocrisy As Texas tries to pass a law that would make it possible to kill a woman who has an abortion, I felt it necessary to write this poem. https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/04/10/texas-bill-would-make-it-possible-put-women-death-having-abortions/?utm_term=.4f0b7e116d99 For centuries women have fought
for equality, freedom, and personal autonomy But the truth remains Our bodies are puppets Manipulated by the men who fear us It is only when we acknowledge this truth That things will begin to change When we finally determine our destiny We will control our bodies And find our own justice. Rape kits no longer delayed Abortion restrictions removed The lifelong decision of motherhood Will be ours-- Not the politician’s or the church’s. Shame has no place here anymore We left it on the muddied doormat of indignity As we walked away and never looked back. Afraid of no one We stand tall Confident in ourselves Finding strength in each other As we take our first breath And cut the strings that controlled us. I’m finding the words
To explain my anger Having felt voiceless for so long my voice cracks when at last I finally scream. You say I need protected You say I must be pure Yet you promote and grandstand assholes with grabby hands and sinful desires But the truth is right before me I can see it with my eyes You don’t give a shit about me Or my bodily demise. Power is your weapon And domination is your goal False values and morality Cloak what we now know. Control her body Control her. No more. No more will we listen No more will we believe you. Finding strength in my freedom. Feeling joy in my rebirth. Knowledge lights my path. And love of my self-worth. It takes religion
To say they’re sinful. It takes religion To treat them like dirt. It takes religion To shun them from society. It takes religion To discard any worth. It takes religion To starve and neglect them. It takes religion To show them no love. It takes religion To abandon and abuse them. It takes religion And their god from above. To toss them aside like their refuse. To dispose of their bodies in a pit. Ignored, hidden, and forgotten The church is a true hypocrite. 796 children had vanished. “Fallen women” were shunned and shamed. As they built their magnificent cathedrals. And the bones in the pit went unnamed. https://www.nytimes.com/video/world/europe/100000005168975/tuam-ireland-babies.html Our reproductive souls, Are so much more than that. We are equal humans, Wearing a variety of hats. From doctors, scientists, Mechanics, and lawyers, To college professors And military soldiers, No longer the days, When women should be, Only baby factories for their families. Our brains are quite brilliant, And our hands very skilled. As we work towards a future, That we valiantly build. Strong in our minds, And our bodies too. I know, we know, Now if only you knew, That these, “Reproductive souls of society” Will no longer have to, Battle defiantly. Towards misconstrued beliefs, And harmful ideology, Of religious dogma’s, Fictitious anthropology. We are talented women, With a very bold mission. Which goes far beyond, Solely parturition. (Listening to the Lars Larson radio program on 4/25/17 around 12:30. A caller called in to talk about the Manchester bombings and talked about how sad it was because, “Women and girls are the reproductive souls of our society.” When we define women as reproductive souls, we define them by their ability to bear children—something that could not happen without men. But I have yet to hear men spoken of in such a way.) How would it feel, To be defined by your semen? And thought less than women, Because of your penis? Prohibited from all, Ejaculation. The sins of any, Form of masturbation. Cherished solely, For your millions of sperm. Creating new life, Would only reaffirm, Your bodily skills, Of reproductivity. Yet always thought of, As completely unequally. Some states would require, You cremate your seed. Mandated ultrasounds, That you must concede Three day waiting period, To see a physician. Then a few other tests, To confirm your emission. Your body is no longer, Yours to determine. As your pastor explains, In a sinful sermon. Told that your sperm, Is religiously sacred. Belittled, demeaned, Yelled at, and hated, For choosing to want, Something bigger and better. But being incapable, And unable to let her, Define you as something, Worth so much more, Than just your average, Sperm-spewing whore. (*As I wrote the following poem, my 10 year old son was just down the hall sleeping in his bed. I didn't want him to ever hear this poem, but I realized that my daughter, and women/girls around the world are faced with similar judgement from others on a daily basis with what they do with their bodies—particularly their reproductive bodies. This poem is nothing new to them—for it happens all the time. And in writing this, I realized the horrible, absurd guilt we place on them with regards to their own bodies. They read it in the news, see it on t.v., and hear it from the politicians. They read it in books, in talk amongst their peers, they are even judged by of all those who shouldn’t—their family and friends. And those places that claim to be free from judgement and “safe places”, such as churches, are often the most judgmental with regards to women’s personal autonomy. So, I switched the roles. I put men in the place of women and tried my best to judge them for what they choose to do with their own reproductive bodies with the same vitriol that has been used against women. It is a gross disrespect to do this—either to men or women. )
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Poetry by: AsherahAlthough she was selectively edited out of the Bible two thousand years ago, she raises her voice for women today in hopes of a better tomorrow, as she makes waves of change, one poem at a time. Archives
May 2020
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