A Woman's Rights

A woman has rights,

But I’m told it’s her choice if she dies on the table,

Surgical steel stabbed through the womb,

Bleeding out, bleeding death,

Bleeding money.

 

A woman has rights,

But I’m told I shouldn’t grieve if she’s found by the road,

Her murder unavenged and her name unknown,

She’s bleeding out, bleeding injustice,

Bleeding loudly.

 

A woman has rights,

But I’m told it’s free speech if a teenager is grabbed,

Abused and bruised by men decades older,

Bleeding out, bleeding innocence,

Bleeding money.

 

A woman has rights,

But I’m told she should shut up if her country is being attacked,

Leopold and Sanger and Cromwell in the guise of medical aid,

But her voice doesn’t matter,

So she her people bleed out, bleed openly,

Bleeding loudly.

 

A woman has rights until she’s raped.

A woman has rights until she’s pregnant.

A woman has rights until she’s newly eighteen.

A woman has rights until she’s a mother.

A woman has rights until she’s a dissenter. 

A woman has rights until she’s not white.

A woman has rights until her body’s a commodity.

A woman has rights until her body isn’t a commodity anymore.

So we bleed out.

And our blood cries out from the ground.

This poem is about: 
My community
My country
Our world

Comments

Annette M Velasquez

Powerful, authentic, visceral and riveting!

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