Originally posted on August 24th, 2016 on my old blog. A poem.
I am not a wallpaper to growth
I am not a house to provide for an uninvited guest
I am not an
insignificant.
I am not
isolated entity of unconditional,
reproductive promise
I am not a hotel;
not meant to serve an embryo while my mind does not exist
I am not less than the bean sized being inside of me
I am not background blur to a half formed thing thriving on discontent
I am a human and my body is mine. It belongs to no intruder
nor is anyone,
no matter how small,
entitled to it.
I grow at my own rate.
I choose.
I do not belong to a sperm and an egg’s interaction;
my existence cannot be defined by one night one choice one experience.
slut whore careless irresponsible cold bitch compassionless selfish cunt
I do not cower to your words
to your outcry at my self-respect,
at my exercising my human rights.
I am not your country to colonize.
why do you scrutinize my womb while you allow men to freely rape without consequence?
why do you turn me into an incubator while you provide me with no means to provide for the being?
why do you look for ambivalence in private corners while we find coat hangers and kitchen knives instead of the 24 hours and the money?
why do you restrict my uterus while you dismiss thousands murdered a year at the legal hands of death, male hands holding legally bought guns?
what is it about my womb that makes you want to own it?
republicans do not want to socialize our government but
they have no problem with socializing our bodies.
they want less government interference, protect our rights, our guns, our ideas of correct marriage, our whiteness
but not women. don’t protect their rights. protect our control over their lives.
I am not my anatomy
I am not void of agency and deliberation
I am not selfish
a woman is not what a woman should be
she is who she is, she is a human being
she is.
and she cannot hold herself hostage
in a womb.
life begins at respect for women, not respect for undeveloped,
unconscious embryonic cells.
pro-life is a mask for anti-woman.
because how are you
a feminist if
a woman has no autonomy over herself?
how are you a feminist if
you tell her she is here solely to create rather than to live?
how are you a feminist if
you do not see a woman’s choice as valid
but see a man’s choice as law?