dearly beloved

we are gathered here,

our marriages intact

for the most part,

to see what these

ridiculous SCOTUS

pranksters will make

of us next. oh, we’ve done

the marches at the Justice Department,

the White House, the Reflecting Pool,

the Vietnam Wall, P Street Beach, you name it.

Nary a rock was thrown, not even an

insult, really. We just said our piece,

pretty please, give us the Equal Rights

for our granddaughters and nieces.

Never mind about our measly seventy

cents on the dollar or all our people

dead from AIDS. We just don’t want to

be afraid for the girls who won’t have a say.

When we put NO MORE WIRE HANGERS

on the signs that we carry, we mean the babies

barely grown, the lovely ones just now going to prom.

For goddess sake, don’t make them go through

this again. It’s not the abortions we want, anyway,

per se, but the right to be free of the ill-begotten.

We know what comes of babies who are hated, spawn

of rapists and fathers who had no right to take what they took.

Please read the book, The Power of Women, written

by a man, and you’ll know where to look. Spare us,

by hook or by crook. Spare them.