Jennifer Lagier

ROE V. WADE FALLS

“In June, the Supreme Court decimated nearly 50 years of established abortion law and handed abortion rights over to the states, unleashing legal chaos. Thanks to “trigger” laws springing into effect, Civil War era bans being resurrected and an overall legal uncertainty that combined with high criminal penalties, many clinics ceased abortion services or closed entirely.” — The Hill


An Antonin Scalia handmaid,
joined by spiteful male Supremes,
two accused of sexual misconduct,
gleefully usurp a woman’s right
to control her own body.
Misogyny informs their decision,
a bully’s need to press jackboots
upon the neck of sisters, daughters and mothers.

Outraged Americans spill into the streets,
protest draconian overturn of fifty-year-old law.
One justice vows to ban contraception,
roll back LGBTQ rights, recriminalize miscegenation,
resegregate schools, encourage persecution, repression.

Who knew in my lifetime
the dark ages would stage a comeback,
democracy corrupted, deformed
into a cruel, intolerant Gilead theocracy
funded by Federalists and the NRA,
a nightmare more horrific than fiction?


Jennifer's YouTube video reading of "Roe v. Wade Falls":



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Jennifer confesses: "I am outraged by the continuing war on women in this country, depressed at the erosion of rights many of us fought hard to obtain."

JENNIFER LAGIER has published nineteen books, in a variety of anthologies and literary magazines, edits the Monterey Poetry Review, helps coordinate Monterey Bay Poetry Consortium Second Sunday readings. Recent books: Meditations on Seascapes and Cypress (Blue Light Press) and COVID Dissonance (CyberWit), Camille Chronicles (FutureCycle Press). Website: jlagier.net, Facebook: www.facebook.com/JenniferLagier/