Reproductive Rights Of Women

Reproductive Rights Of Women
© Surazeus
2018 10 05

Smoke rises from the chimney of the cabin
nestled among tall pines in Vermont hills.
Cradling mug of hot mocha in her hands,
Christine steps out on the wooden back porch
and breathes deep crisp air of mountains in fall,
then lounges with her friends who share deep thoughts.

"This whole debacle now in Washington,
where the grabber-in-chief in our White House
appointed to serve on the Supreme Court
the drunken frat bro who assaulted girls
in high school and college, has freaked me out.
I was assaulted and raped several times
when I was in grade school, high school, and college,
each time thinking it as just my own fault,
so I was always too ashamed to tell.
This is the first time in my whole long life
of forty-eight years that I ever shared
my experiences of sexual assault.
Whenever I saw other girls report
assaults or rapes, either no one believed
anything they said, or they were accused
of letting it happen to them, or mocked
for being sluts, or dismissed as evil liars.
I have never felt safe going out alone,
so I am always careful and prepared
to never be out alone after dark
or to have knives or mace inside my purse
to protect myself if some man attacks.
Since the first time I accepted a drink
at a party, and woke up in the dark
of some bedroom getting groped by a boy
too drunk to hold me down as I escaped,
I have never gotten drunk at a party
nor ever accepted drinks from strange men.
When she testified in congress last week
about how he held her down on the bed
and covered her mouth when she tried to scream
I felt the shock and horror of each time
some male, who cannot control his desires
nor respects that my body is my own,
assaulted me or raped me in my life.
Their rape never seemed to be about pleasure
but about their right to control my body,
but I now reclaim the right to my body
as well as reproductive rights of women.
I have been in bed with many good men
who love me well and treat me with respect
by honoring the will of my desire,
so I have many more experiences
of satisfied passion and tender love,
than those seven times men assaulted me,
but those men know how to treat me as human,
and not as mindless object of their lust.
When men express desire to share with me
sweet passion of copulation in bed
I should always be free to express will
of my desire to accept or deny
because my body belongs to no one
but me alone, even when I am married,
and every man should accept my free choice,
and leave me alone if I should say no.
The system of our whole society
is based on the supremacy of men
controlling the economic machine,
so they decide what we do with our bodies,
but we need to rise up with courage now
to overthrow their rancid patriarchy
and free our bodies from their perverse rules.
We women are not valued as ourselves
except by other men who share our lives,
husbands, sons, and various male relatives,
but we should be valued as women first,
and respected for the choices we make.
Since old white male senators in congress say
they will vote to confirm the rapist pig
to serve as justice on the Supreme Court,
we have a big fight ahead of us now
to maintain the liberty of our rights
as women who are equal human beings
to decide what happens to our own bodies.
We must protect our right to an abortion
because we alone choose to reproduce,
and what man we want to make babies with,
which is what makes them angry the most,
that we choose who will father all our children.
We must keep control through the legal system
over reproductive rights of our bodies,
for that is the base of true liberty."

Staring amazed and delighted, her friends
cheer her eloquent expression of choice,
detailing her experiences with rape,
and her determination to fight hard
to maintain reproductive rights of women.
The sun gleams rays of gold through tall pine trees
as they talk on the porch in Vermont hills,
voices flowing like clear stream in the woods.