after the overturning of Roe v Wade by the Supreme Court Justices, June 24, 2022
following the expansion of the Second Amendment by the Supreme Court Justices,
June 23, 2022
what is life inside
the girl or the woman
alive in her body
her depths these laws
presume, newly revived
the scrutiny of judges, remote
in their black robes, the majority
including one woman
making history
in backwardness
their obsession about who
rules the uterus, the blood cycle
of women and girls
the sanctity of life
the blood of abortion sickening them so much more
than death by the violence
they have just facilitated—
the day before, mulling over language
to expand the right to bear arms
of all kinds, the Second Amendment
having been treated
as if it were a second-class right
needing correction
no matter mass murder
after mass murder—
no matter Uvalde
the lives of children
not the point—
as is the case today, efficiently
clearing the way
for prosecutors
to track the records of women and girls
to track each and every abortion
against the encoded
baby of the law
of unreason
the baby and mother both
reduced
to detection
of a heartbeat, bodies
owned by the law
historic, written out
against the girl or woman
alive inside her body
the trees full
vital
in and of themselves
her own
these judges’ argument against her
their dismissal:
it is none of her business
to decide, to conceive
or not
and how they rope
these laws around her life, a life
they cannot imagine
yet they proceed
they in fact would
they in fact do
let her burn
stacking the laws
like wood around her feet
tying her hands
ready to let the fire catch
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Carter McKenzie is the author of the chapbook Naming Departure (Traprock Books, 2004), and two full-length books of poetry, Out of Refusal (Airlie Press, 2010) and Stem of Us (Flowstone Books, 2018). She is an active member of the Springfield-Eugene chapter of SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice).
Photo credit: Max McCarty (Pacific Photo Lab)