in those health class diagrams
gametes (those two halves
of a whole)
will meet and meld
given the chance
uncaring of circumstance
those eggs
& that sperm incapable
of consent, & yes,
innocent & intent
in their division
not so us, the knife point
pressing into a throat
his heavy hand smothering
a scream, but was it really
loud enough
is rape legitimate
only when a woman dies
or is almost pulseless
here
they quote nonsense
as if it were truth
hypocritically and hypothetically
raping the victims again
in chain action
insisting
that these bodies
can reject sperm
that our eggs
will float past them
unfertilized
rather than simply
complete the equation
& start dividing
if we women
cannot fight rape, how
can our cells themselves
cry our invasion
and reject it
if the womb had a mind
and the ovaries mouths
if these nerves
could tell pain
to the cells of the body
they would shout
undo this
but they do not
if they could
if we could embrace life
& implant it
when willing
we would be
a new species
before
we have fully evolved
into this one
Susan Daniels Poetry 
It is basic biology,
But
The stain of rape is
Unwashable, unremavable
undone.
Yes. Written in response to the ridiculousness over here. It is horrific.
I am glad I follow your blog … you write so intensely and the words themselves are too powerful !!!
Thank you.
ah, clever reference to todd akin – well put
Thanks, Kyle. Wish I did not have to write this.
Such an outrageous thing to say, to claim, to project. Relax and enjoy it, worry not, natural defences ward off pregnancy. Great people emerge from the by product of rape. How the counter-claims flowed heavy yesterday. Deal with the perpetrator and protect the child, as if the one raped shifted out of sight and mind, her trauma inconsequential.
And really, in the grand vision of patriarchy these folk embrace, we are. Vessels of carriage, means of phallic stimulation, implements of servitude, this is how they see us. You carry because we say you do, not because of a wish to parent. You stay at risk because we disapprove of hormonal birth control. We put you in legal jeopardy if you try to work around our mandates.
‘Support us’, they claim in commercials, those of the same basic philosophy. ‘Cast away those who lie about us’, by telling the truth. And what amazes me is the number of women still who collaborate and conspire with them, against the rest of us.
Nelle, very well said. I honestly do not know how any woman/girl or one who loves a woman/girl (hmmm, think that is all of us?) could ever embrace such an ideology. Horrific, terrible. Biology is NOT destiny, it does NOT chain us, and we should do nothing unwillingly with our bodies to appease someone else’s idea of what is right. God. This is what we have been talking about for for 40 years.
Of course, this is very timely (and necessary).
Two stanzas stands out for me here:
if we women
cannot fight rape, how
can our cells themselves
cry our invasion
and reject it
I find that very eloquent not only because it is beatifully put, but because what Akin said begs this very question.
And this:
if they could
if we could embrace life
& implant it
when willing
we would be
a new species
This speaks directly to something I scratch my head about all of the time (literally):
Why are people who are supposedly so pro-life often so pro-war, pro-death penalty, pro-hunting for sport? I don’t understand it at all. They do not “embrace life” but seem to want to “implant it” (in Akin’s case) or, when it comes to foreign policy, business models, hunting, etc. they seem to want to supplant it.
Thank you for writing this.
Oh, I so wish I did not have to write this. Really. But comments like those above and this one let me know I should, that we all should. The skewed vision of the mindset you describe above scares the hell out of me.
It scares me too and leaves me puzzled. . . unless I am willing to admit the malevolent intent of Akin and his apologists (and I am willing to admit that much).
I am willing to admit malevolence…A & co. are perhaps quite capable of dehumanizing anything that is not them–white, male, and loving every minute of it.
So honest and couragous! You nailed it, Susan!
Thanks, Ken. Maybe our elected reps need to take a refresher course–in both biology and humanity.
and have their head examined 🙂
Yes, that too!
A beautiful an powerful statement, Susan. Very well said
Thank you–wish I did not have to write it.
Perfection !
Thanks, Deb.