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Abortion
“My body, my choice”
All her life that seemed best,
And especially where
There was rape or incest.
But as early as twelve weeks
A fetus feels pain,
And in just eight weeks’ time
Facial features are plain.
Thus “my body, my choice”
Can no longer seem right,
For she fears that it’s murder
Performed in plain sight.
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Poet’s Note: In Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court found a Constitutional right to an abortion, up to the point of fetal viability, despite the absence of any such language in the document. The Court has done that sort of thing many times, even bizarrely attributing new rights to “penumbras, formed by emanations.” Its Roe decision is now being challenged in a case from Mississippi that the Court will rule on next year.
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Standards
Is it old school
To expect the propriety
Seemingly waning
In modern society?
.
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Russel Winick recently started writing poetry at nearly age 65, after ending a long legal career. He resides in Naperville, Illinois.
Russel, your pithy witticisms continue to dazzle. Values such as morality and virtue are too often dismissed today.
Thanks Cheryl. I agree. Such things pith me off.
Hello Russel. I like these poems very much. I wrote a three verse poem back in 1982 with the same title:
Abortion
The media installs the program,
The bureaucracy does the same.
You’re Billy or Dave, Sally or Sam,
Your name is but part of the game.
The individual is less of a man,
Or woman, in this world of ours.
People in power don’t give a damn,
We are born to die in just hours.
Abortion is the fashion these days,
You can kill me before I am born.
Trying to be born in so many ways,
My patience is getting quite worn.
(The third verse in my poem is from the point of view of a soul that keeps getting aborted every time it tries to get born into a body.)
I’m glad you like them David, and thanks for sharing your poem.
Effective ending to the “Abortion” poem, and “Standards” is a gem cut and polished from a single pair of rhyming words!
Thanks Margaret. I appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts.
The Dobbs case, from Mississippi, should be decided by the Supreme Court by the end of June or possibly well before.
Right. I wrote this poem last year. Should be interesting.