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Jul 05
poem challenge: Roe v. Wade
elise.writer

Not Ready

To the 16-year-old girl who
Lived five miles down the road, not too far,
And knew, accepted mistakes of her own, learning from them,
Because she was not ready to be a mother

Now she will unwillingly suffer through birth
Not to mention the potential pain of offering her child up for adoption
And if not, a poorly parented, rough, unwanted childhood

To the 35-year-old woman who
Was a friend of a friend from a neighborhood from college
And no matter how old, never wanted to be a mother,
With a choice, knowing what was right for her

Now she will unwillingly suffer through birth
Not to mention the potential pain of offering her child up for adoption
And if not, a poorly parented, rough, unwanted childhood

To the woman struggling to make ends meet who
Lives in a cluttered apartment in the near city's avoided suburbs
And wasn't in a stable position in life to become a mother,
Read More
Posted: 07.05.22
Jul 05
poem
Stargirl

You and I

Sleep is but a memory
It’s the tide that slips onto the shore,
Leaving dreams washed up on the beach
There are daisies on my mind, a wrinkled blanket 
Left in a field under the mid day sun
I went away so I could come back 
Didn’t want to but it was important that I did
Held the hand of a little girl, snapshot
In my mind
Her strawberry blonde hair shining, tiny face
Smiling up at me as ice cream melts
I wake up crying, arms reaching out…
She was never mine and I don’t want her
But my mind is trying to convince me I do

Wandered the aisles of Hannaford, looking
For shampoo and conditioner 
It made me smile because
It made me think of you
And that poem I wrote so many memories ago
And now my mind is stuck on you 
We’ve come so far together, 13 months 
Been through so much, with you next to me
The hours we’ve spent together, your arms around me 
Read More
Posted: 07.05.22
Jul 04
poem challenge: Roe v. Wade
Scarry Night

What You Erased

I am young.
I am still a teenager,
I still have time to make choices,
I still have time to figure out my future.
I still have time to do what I want to do.
But there are now things that have been taken away from me,
rights
that have been taken away from me,
that impact my youth,
my life,
​just like many others'. 
I used to be able to live anywhere in this country,
anywhere I want,
and be able to make mistakes
without being punished for them,
without being met with consequence.
As if writing with a pencil,
I could erase if I wanted to,
if I needed to.
Now,
as the right to have an abortion has been taken away
in many places,
that pencil has been rid of its eraser. 
Now, 
that pencil can only write.
Now, 
whoever writes with that pencil,
whoever was born a female,
cannot make mistakes,
cannot change decisions. 
Now,
Read More
Posted: 07.04.22
Jul 02
poem
Sawyer Fell

A Longing for Sunburn

The moonlight casts a lonesome silhouette
of where your body would bring the picture
to life in this humanly incomplete puzzle, 
pillows and blankets jaggedly shuffled and
stuffed into vacant cracks, and I dream that the chilled
shadow across my waist is your arm fondly
acknowledging the small of my body as the 
dark wanes with the bright side of the moon. 

Until you have come panting at my door like 
a drenched wayward dog desiring for more than a bone,
the moon will remain as my witching hour lover. 
Until you arrive back home with light shining 
in your every cell and become my beacon of warmth, 
my treasured fiery sun boy. Until I witness you rise
in the morning light, I will weep like a widow in the dawn
and be silent under my galactic twilight shawl.
Read More
Posted: 07.02.22
Jul 01
rant challenge: Roe v. Wade
Stargirl

I don’t even know

To the Supreme Court 

I'm sorry, but what exactly do you get out of this again?
More overpopulation?
You’re pro life but have you done anything about 
The starving people in this world?
Have you even considered, the children that commit suicide
Every year because they don’t want to be in foster care 
Anymore?
So tell me again, what is this to you?
Because what do you think you’re going to get out of controlling 
The bodies that don’t belong to you?
Why is it that you get to decide the fate of millions of people?
Sorry if it seems like I’m attacking but
I’m scared and upset right now
And I really don’t understand 
How come guns have more rights than a person who can 
Create life?
How come guns have more rights than me? 
How come the one that takes away
Has more freedom than the one who gives?
And what happens to the ones who are born
Homeless, hungry, poor, unwanted
Read More
Posted: 07.01.22
Jul 01
poem challenge: Rights
ellenb's picture
ellenb

Fear of existence

I go outside
I fear the strangers
staring 
watching
judging
waiting
I stay inside
I fear my father
staring
watching
judging
waiting
It seems like it will never end
It seems like I am never safe
Maybe that's what they want
what they've wished for
and hoped for
and prayed for
For me to be scared
For me to be terrified to live
For me to stop existing in their perfect world
Their perfect
stereotypical
heteronormative
male
world
that makes me feel so out of place
my insides feel like they're burning

Every time I think about leaving I wonder
Who would want me?
Who would truly want me?
and then I realize
I'm selfish for thinking I'm the only one
The only one who is suffering 
The only one living with the burden of who I am

That's why they call it a community

So we can all suffer together
Read More
Posted: 07.01.22
Jun 29
poem challenge: Pastoral
wildcat

Where my Heart Lives

My heart lives in a place
in the middle of the beautiful and mysterious woods
sitting on a rock in front of the sparkling water,
my heart is at peace.
A pond full of life and memories,
the place that I know best. 
In the spring, the trees bloom,
the buds falling in the water 
to create a pastel display.
In the summer, the green, green leaves are all around
and over the water the dragonflys buzz,
the water, full of life.
In the fall, the leaves turn to create their fiery portrait of beauty,
and the air turns brisk.
In the winter, the water freezes over to create Nature's own ice rink,
and the sparkling, sparkling snow.
This place holds my memories, my heart, my soul.
My place of peace.

 
Read More
Posted: 06.29.22
Jun 28
opinion
Ice Blink

The avoided pond

I fold restless legs underneath myself and connect more of myself to the soft red pine needles and well-trod dirt, the rest of our group in similar states of settling down. The sarcastic comment as we viewed the dark pond sticks in my mind. “We aren’t walking through THAT are we?” I think of the abundant ecosystem the same pond provides, and yet the residue it leaves making it unpleasant and unwelcoming. I imagine getting into the water and the thought of it makes me shiver.

Read More
Posted: 06.28.22
Jun 27
poem
TreePupWriter

Sunken dime

I was fearless. Untouchable. Knew who I was. What I wanted.
“Life is hard”? Yeah, maybe for
some but
not for me.
I had it all figured out.

There wasn’t much I needed to wish for, but the act of it was fun.
My dime shone at the bottom of the mall fountain, bright against
All those rusty pennies from the kind of people who would
Sit at the edge of the water and
Sigh, all starry-eyed.
I wasn’t like them. I was business. I whispered my wish. Not breathy. Firm:

Make me a hero.

I hadn’t noticed she was watching. She maybe
Went to my school, but I didn’t remember.

A hero, huh? Almost accusatory.
You should take up people-watching.

I blinked. Glanced from the bustling makeup-store patrons to the
Five-year-old at the gumball machine. Their full bags. His gleaming quarter.

Not those people.
Read More
Posted: 06.27.22
Jun 27
poem challenge: Roe v. Wade
elise.writer

We Will Rise

For fifty years through thought and wit
We have made our own decisions
Our bodies are ours, as we've known all along
We can't let them be up to the politicians

Black-robed judges and justices
Claim to have overturned Roe v. Wade
But their choices can't silence our voices
We'll never stop speaking up, unafraid

Some women who are younger or even older
Simply aren't ready to be mothers
And some who've been raped never had a choice
We can't leave their fate up to others

We mustn't succumb to the politician's will
Even if our rights to choice don't matter in their eyes
Instead we'll learn and unite and educate and change
For even through this hardship, we will rise
Read More
Posted: 06.27.22
Jun 26
poem challenge: Roe v. Wade
TheMangledSans0508

Pro-life

I am pro-life.

I am pro the life of the children lost in schools, the places they should've been safe.
I am for the gun control measures that failed that would've saved their lives.
I am pro the life of the woman who tried so hard to have a baby but when she got the greatest news of her life, she also got the worst.
I am for the action of terminating her pregnancy because it was ectopic and would've taken her life if she didn't.
I am pro the life of the man who knew he was sick, yet still refused to seek medical help.
I am for the universal health care that would've given him the means to reach out.

I am pro-choice.

I am pro the choice the girl makes to go on puberty blockers.
I support her because without it, the dysphoria she feels makes it difficult for her to even speak.
I am pro the choice to educate our children.
I support them because without it, history is doomed to repeat itself.
Read More
Posted: 06.26.22
Jun 24
opinion challenge: Roe v. Wade
fitzgerg's picture
fitzgerg

50 Years

For fifty years, people not unlike myself have been protected.
Fifty years; over thirty less than the average woman's lifespan.
This means that the average woman has not yet been able to live her entire life with control over her body.
Now, I won't be able to do that either.
My control over my own body has been taken from me.
Every woman in this country's control over her body is at stake due to the decision of five people.
They say that we must protect the lives of unborn humans,
but why should we do that when it puts the matured, active lives of their mothers at stake?
The decision to continue forward with a pregnancy should be between a woman and her doctor.
Why have we let majorly male politicians take that from us? What more could they know about the burden of birthing and raising a child?
They say it's religion, but it is in a way I'll never understand. 
Read More
Posted: 06.24.22
Jun 24
poem challenge: Roe v. Wade
Anna Tringale

Unethical

Today America held its breath.

I am worth the pennies of projectiles
Am and left with less reproductive rights
Than bacteria on a politician's thumbprint

It is not to agonize, but to organize 
But there is nothing good
About an extremist

I am not alive
in the nine's eyes.

Note: I've composed this poem in under five minutes. May every keyboard stroke be etched in anger. This is not a good poem, but why should I put thought into my poetry about thoughtless laws?
I apologize.







 
Read More
Posted: 06.24.22
Jun 23
poem challenge: Writing 2022
ZoeBee

My son and baby birds

When my son asks for a bb gun for squirrels, I will hand him wildflower seeds and tell him that he will take care of the next baby bird
That crashes into our window
When that baby bird dies, because baby birds always do, I will kiss him and we will bury the body in an ornate carved wooden box
And he will never want for a bb gun again
I will never let him cry without an embrace or climb a ladder without support and when he hits people I will cry
Because maybe I should have let him fall or hoisted him higher but a mother always cries
And so I will pull myself together and spray my son with the bottle used for our plants and have him apologize and play
The first time he uses "girl" as an insult and not a descriptor or a title of highest praise we will sit down and I will look him in the eye
And tell him that I am a girl
That I was a girl and will always be a girl and that girl is just a name for what some people are
Read More
Posted: 06.23.22
Jun 22
poem
Scarry Night

Everything and Nothing

Days are endless,
they are endless
pieces of time
that are organized 
into hours,
minutes,
seconds.
Most wake up 
in the morning,
we eat at noon,
we go to sleep
when the sky
is dark. 
We have a schedule,
for school,
for work.
But what happens 
when there is no
schedule anymore?
For a student,
what happens when 
summer arrives?
Do we manage our time,
our actions?
Do we wait 
for something
different to happen?
Or do the days become 
one day,
do the colors of each defining hour,
each defining minute,
blend?
In summer,
we don't know when it's time to sleep,
we don't know what the date is without a calendar,
we don't know what
to do
when there is nothing 
to
do. 
Each hour passes by at differing paces,
sometimes leaving you waiting and waiting,
while other times,
Read More
Posted: 06.22.22
Jun 21
poem challenge: Writing 2022
elise.writer

OK

Symphony of colors
Melody of hills
Harmony of growth
Ballad of truth
Rhythm of quakes
Tunes of emotions
Beats of light
Chorales of love

Keys weave stitches with
A gentle touch whispering
To the pain not that
It's OK but that perhaps
It's not OK and that's
OK
In a way nothing else can
Music heals

Eyes slide closed
Letting rhythms weave us back
Together
Read More
Posted: 06.21.22
Jun 20
poem challenge: Writing 2022
Geri

Revelation/Revitalization

And it was at that time…poetry arrived. 
Or rather, 
I fell into it. 
Idly turning pages, 
lips mindlessly mouthing words, 
transcribing sounds into sentences. 
From mud it called me. 
From the depths of my despair. 
Gradually, it moved—had been moving—until it touched me. 
There, 
my heart, 
there, 
my head, 
there, 
my soul, 
it touched me. 

And I followed it, 
blindly following the fire
until it became the way out. 
There, 
flame to inferno, 
there, 
waves to water, 
there, 
girl to poet, 
poet to girl. 


*Inspired by Pablo Neruda’s poem “Poetry”. 
 
Read More
Posted: 06.20.22
Jun 19
poem challenge: Do
Amelia_v

To Do list for today

To Do
  • Write a letter to grandma
  • Tell her of how I have grown
  • Of all the ups and downs
  • That come with being fifteen
  • Tell her about missing my friends
  • How we used to pretend to be mermaids
  • Remind her that she is my favorite 
  • And that I miss her more then the world
  • Make sure to add a heart at the end
  • Right before my name
Read More
Posted: 06.19.22
Jun 17
poem
chickengirltoo

Time

Born
Tiny
Hospital
I'm coming home
Toddler giggles
The Tombleeboo dance
Cozy bedtime stories
Ready. Going to preschool.
I'm a princess on the playground
I am a child learning to read books
We're moving to our new home in Vermont
Sis and I explore nature and build homes for
Fairies. I like to play pretend and make believe.
Kindergarten friends Addy, Austin, Clara, Eleanor
First grade best reader in the class. New friends Mia T and
Vivian. Want to be an environmentalist to help the Earth. 
Pandemic changes everything. School online. Read a lot. Nervous.
Back and in person cry and leave the room scared of handshakes and covid.
In a bedroom in grandma and grandpa's house, writing this poem right now. 

 

 
Read More
Posted: 06.17.22
Jun 17
poem challenge: Writing 2022
Chickengirl's picture
Chickengirl

The Wind on the Moors

What is it about the wind on the moors
That makes you not mind
When it blows your hair into your mouth
And the water you're trying to drink out of your mouth
And the juice of the nectarine you're trying to eat everywhere else?
 
What is it about the wind on the moors
That makes your sandwich taste like the best thing ever
When you eat the same thing every Thursday
And it never tastes special at all?
 
What is it about the wind on the moors
That fills your head with poems
And stories
And songs
Some which already exist
And some which are your own?
 
What is it about the wind on the moors
That makes you feel like you could conquer the world
When in reality
You're not even sure
If you can survive Shakespeare camp?
 
What is it about the wind on the wind on the moors
That makes it the wind on the moors?
 
Read More
Posted: 06.17.22
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