with the blessings
of
the supreme court
texas
has brought back
a slave society
socially
economically
and
politically dependent
on
slave labor
from
women
women
like
those old
grand plantation ladies
that were kept
for
the entertainment
and
breeding
purposes
of
men
men who now
quote
from
the old testament
as if
they’d
ever
bothered
to
read it
all they know
is
that
women
have gotten
just
too uppity
and
need to be reminded
that men
rule the roost
so
a new law
to shackle
the
girls
to
the domestic sphere
nursing
and
taking care
of
their children
as well as
cooking
house cleaning
and
washing
the men’s
dirtied underwear
for
it was clearly
written
on the walls
of
the alamo outhouse
there can only
be
one star
in
texas
a man
for a brief moment in time we believed the dream could come true that our words could save lives and change the course of history but after all these years we are still counting bodies from war and seeing women denied the rights to their own bodies love one another is still really just the lyrics of a song sang by a few folks sipping martinis at the club house a sentimental relic of college days days when some of us watched our friends being dragged off by the police some never the same person once returned from captivity some souls are perishable war rape and police batons can do that they say just as bullets can end life and when the white sheets are replaced by dark uniforms of blue or black the murders are made justifiable lynchings without ropes nothing has changed but once we had dreams
pulpit politicos those practicing pharisees promote protecting the unborn child but those already born are forgotten once outside the hospital doors and as for their mothers who were once called sacred vessels of god now are unwed whores shunned from those sacred doors adorned with golden images representing your heavenly reward redeemable if and only if you contribute funds to be used at the discretion of god’s terrestrial representatives for indiscretions representatives whose sermons give a new meaning to the golden fleece
the dead man did not speak and some in the crowd questioned whether or not he was listening but people still came forth some protesting our state of continuous war others complained about global warming and how their lives had been changed forever more than a handful carried placards and screamed about abortion and women’s rights those concerned about civil rights for people of color residents and would-be-residents appeared only when the cameras were flashing and their voices we quickly muted by a series of rants on self-interest topics in the end the dead man did not speak nor show any true emotion which would be expected from a corpse so when the dead man was rotated and returned to the senate no one was really surprised
generally the brown bag prophet avoids arguments with religious disciples stating that beliefs cannot be verified otherwise they’d be facts and given beliefs require personal acceptance arguments over beliefs constitute shadow boxing but yesterday the prophet was cornered by a zealot promoting byzantine abortion laws who spewed religious text that demonized a woman’s right to have possession of her own body saying his scriptures were provided via divine inspiration from god when finally given an opportunity to speak the brown bag prophet said i’ve read there are 320 million gods in the world does your position represent a majority vote or someone just on some bad drugs
when your daughter or daughter’s daughter lies bleeding in bed butchered by a wire then tell me of your moral code protecting the unborn at all cost sacrificing a woman’s life to appease man’s distorted words of god go ahead have another cigarette after raping her rights hell smoke the whole damn pack if it brings an end to fools like you
aunt bea said i’ve been thinking about all these new abortion laws being passed by male dominated bible thumping porn star watching wanna-be slave masters of women legislators and so i’ve sent them a comparable law for men it reads all males who have not within the last nine months or cannot because of age contribute to the procreation of a healthy male child shall by law and without exception be forthwith castrated and put out to pasture now doesn’t that sound fair to you
Image by Arnold Genthe, N.Y. appeared in 'The Woman Citizen' October 1926
a woman standing alone listening to prefabricated values from a society that has died long ago these laws are artifacts of the good old days when women were possession not like the women who saved a nation working in the factories during testosterone wars or the ones who fought for freedom while riot police tore away their clothes but you with your religious text in hand deny the adultery of words with actions clinging to your old mythical morality while wearing those puritanical white sheets stained with martyr’s blood
Read Between the Minds 