By Sarah Terzo
Honorable Mention, Poetry, Create | Encounter 2024
On battlefields in the New World
bodies lie among the refuse.
Tied up in plastic bags.
Faces frozen in silent screams.
Disembodied hands reaching for something
they will never grasp, something
they will never even see.
Hands that will never pick a flower or pet a dog.
Tiny feet that will never run.
What a travesty.
All those plastic bags
polluting the environment!
New Jersey passed a law.
No more plastic bags at grocery stores.
The clinics will have to use something else.
Maybe nice biodegradable cardboard boxes.
We must save the planet
for future children.
(No, not those children).
When Dr. Beverly McMillan quit
she gave as a reason:
“I couldn’t stand to look at
the little bodies anymore.”
And where was I?
Laughing with my friends in high school
Having my first date, my first
innocent kiss.
I didn’t realize.
Where were you?
Facts of science
reduced to opinions.
Life relegated in importance
to a casual conversation
between two friends over a cup of coffee.
Media sound bites, bumper stickers, and slogans.
Propaganda machines,
Lies, lies, and lies.
In a world where justice yields to politics.
politics yields to public opinion.
Public opinion yields to wealth
and wealth springs from exploitation,
it all comes down to power.
The power to reshape our minds.
The power to corrupt our souls.
The power to rape our wombs.
To toe the line,
it takes no courage.
only white lies, black robes
and a habit of
indifference.
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