Manifesto

Deprivation of my rights and freedom
Bodily autonomy, tossed out of 
a terrace window, seventy-third floor 

of a building in New York that touches
the same ground I walk on, yet reaches much
higher than I could ever imagine.

I scream to them, giant politicians, 
but the shadow of their business loafers
overhead      scare the sound from my pursed lips.

My individuality      exchanged
for a man’s practicality; it seems
as though they've had their fun     suppressing us

Toying with my consciousness like a cat
praying on a field mouse, so innocent.
They say: so innocent!      Could I be, too?

or shall I wear my curiosity
like a garment, like an oddity for
men to squint at, confine my mind and bones

to the idea that women shouldn’t 
bare the decision of what lives within;
     shackles on my reproductive organs

dig into my skin like the words they spew
from hot mouths, pouring into the laps of
women, alphabet soup spelling, “no more”.

Let us breathe in the possibility
of respect and dignity,     the promise
of true liberty and justice for all.  

     Far too powerful, they fear, women are.

politicalwomeniambic pentameter

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