Commentary - May 10, 2008 - Printable Version
- To The Oklahoma Lawmakers Who Passed SB1878
by Lauren Zuniga Why don’t you print out the ultrasound
pictures and pastel frame them.
Make me take them home and hang them
on my wall as a souvenir of the night that
is branded like red coals to flesh on my memory.
The night when his palm was pressed to my
shoulder blade so hard I felt more intimacy with asphalt.
Why don’t you knit the baby a sweater.
Make me pull it out on the anniversary of this day
for the rest of my life so I never forget that I chose
to be a murderer instead of bringing life into a world
where we kill people in the name of freedom
but imprison people in the name of life.
You could pass laws for that too, ya know.
It’s bad enough I can still see his hand prints
on my thighs but now I can see your probing
eye scraping across my cervix, tattooing shame
on my womb.
Why don’t you send me a card every
Mothers Day to remind me of how wretched I am.
Sign it:
Your Friends at the State Capitol,
Making Sure You Know We Actually Do
Something All Day With Your Tax Dollars.
Look, I know it can get little boring between
The Porkers Association breakfast and the
Oil and Natural Gas Industry Lunch. I know
you need something to do between screwing
up our election system and fining business owners
for hiring hard working people but I need a little
more from you than a piece of paper. I mean if you
really want to show me that you believe in
Faith, Family and Freedom
than why don’t you come along for the ride.
I could have used you that night.
After the football game. Me grasping
for acceptance, him finally giving me attention.
Tell me I’m special,
so when he hands me the next drink, I don’t look
to the bottom of it for approval.
Tell me to scream louder,
so someone might find us.
Wrap me in blanket when he’s done.
Take me home, my body a tapped keg,
my heart a grimy gym floor after the pep rally.
Give me the words to say to my parents when
I come out of the bathroom with + sign on the stick.
I wouldn’t tell them at all if you didn’t already
require their permission slip.
Remind me who I am when he won’t
answer my calls, the school hallway
is a canyon, silence echoes in my skull.
Hold my hand everyday as I try to
decide what to do. Sit with me for an hour
at the clinic, the ticker plucking
at my innocence. Give me the revelation
that the blip on the screen is actually a baby.
Take me home when I change my mind.
Take me to the doctor every month.
Hold my hand in the delivery room.
I’ll name him after you, if you help me do my
homework when he’s crying in the next room.
Give me food stamps. Help me get my GED.
Pay my gas bill. Pay for the afterschool program
where he learns he can sell my pain pills.
Have mercy on him when he goes to court.
Give me strength when they sentence him.
Remind me again why I gave my up my faith,
my family, my freedom for a night
so someone as holy as you wouldn’t think
I value choice more than life.
If you want to play God, Mr. and Mrs. Lawmakers,
if you want to write your bible on my organs,
then you better be there when I’m down
on my knees, pleading for relief from your morality.
To read more of Lauren Zuniga's poetry, or to purchase her CDs and books, go to:
www.laurenzuniga.com
Voice your opinion on our message board (you don't have to sign up to post).
Commentary Archives:
Is Canada Robbing America Blind? Terrorism North of the Border (Mark Faulk, Mar 19, 2004)
1/31/01: Somewhere Over Middle America (Mark Faulk, Mar 27, 2004)
The Radical Middle (Mark Faulk, Apr 10, 2004)
We Have Seen The Enemy...... (Mark Faulk, May 11, 2004)
StockGate: A Call To Arms (Mark Faulk, Jun 7, 2004)
A Call To Arms: Firing The First Shots (Mark Faulk, Jun 20, 2004)
Searching For Michael Moore (Mark Faulk, Jul 20, 2004)
To The NASD: PROVE ME WRONG! (Dave Patch, Aug 14, 2004)
13 Million Left Behind (Mark Faulk, Aug 28, 2004)
Republican Convention 2004: A Hopefuller America (Mark Faulk, Sep 8, 2004)
Christian Soldiers (Down The Middle, Sep 16, 2004)
US Thwarts Major Terrorist Attack (Mark Faulk, Sep 22, 2004)
George Bush Declares George Bush the Winner (Mark Faulk, Sep 30, 2004)
The Faulking Truth Projects Kerry the Winner in Tonight's Debate (Mark Faulk, Oct 8, 2004)
Those Who Served (Mark Faulk, Oct 12, 2004)
The Real Villain (Mark Faulk, Oct 28, 2004)
Politicians Gone Wild (Mark Faulk, Nov 2, 2004)
The Music Died Again! (Linda C. Wilson, Nov 6, 2004)
The Draft will Start in June 2005 (Strait Gate Ministries, Nov 15, 2004)
Inside Bush’s Brain: “Hellooooo, Karl!” (Linda C. Wilson, Nov 18, 2004)
Tulsa World on Oklahoma Vote Totals: We Have No Idea (Mark Faulk, Nov 30, 2004)
The Year I Won the Lottery (Mark Faulk, Dec 18, 2004)
Lost at Sea....Talking to God (Again) (Mark Faulk, Dec 26, 2004)
Can This Marriage be Saved? (Robin Buckallew, Jan 4, 2005)
The Lonesome Gods (Mike Bohling, Jan 13, 2005)
With God on our Side: A Minister Speaks out for Peace (Robin Meyers, Jan 28, 2005)
A Simple Matter of Conscience (Mike Bohling, Feb 21, 2005)
Outsourcing Dishonesty (Joel S. Hirschhorn , Mar 3, 2005)
What a Long Strange Trip It's Been..... (Mark Faulk, March 19, 2005)
Welcome to the “Culture of Life” (Jeff Buckley, Mar 24, 2005)
Out of Control and Sinking Fast (Robin Buckallew, Apr 3, 2005)
No Testing Company Left Behind (Robin Buckallew, Apr 17, 2005)
Good-Bye, Old Friend (Jeff Buckley, Apr 30, 2005)
Why We Matter (Jeff Buckley, May 11, 2005)
Better Get Another Camel…This One’s Got a Broken Back (Jeff Buckley, May 29, 2005)
It's All Happening at the Zoo (Robin Buckallew, Jun 11, 2005)
Truth is Out of Style (Robin Buckallew, Jun 20, 2005)
London Calling (Jeff Buckley, Jul 7, 2005)
The "Magic Bomb" Theory (Mark Faulk, Jul 23, 2005)
Penis Envy? Hell, no - How About Paycheck Envy? (Robin Buckallew, Aug 9, 2005)
Vigil to be Held Sunday for Three "Prisoners of Conscience" in Lawton, Oklahoma (Mark Faulk, Aug 26, 2005)
Is Cindy Sheehan Being Used.....by the Bush Administration? (Mark Faulk, Aug 18, 2005)
I Am Not a Kook (Robin Buckallew, Aug 29, 2005)
"Our Government is KILLING the People of New Orleans" (Mark Faulk, Sep 3, 2005)
What Does it all Mean, Anyway? (Robin Buckallew, Sep 12, 2005)
Boomer Sooner (Down the Middle, Oct 6, 2005)
Report From Pascagoula (D. E. Neighbors, Oct 25, 2005)
Bitch, Bitch, Bitch! (Down the Middle, Nov 11, 2005)
Inalienable Human Rights.... (Mark Faulk, Nov 18, 2005)
Waking Up in Bizzaro America (Mike Bohling, Dec 7, 2005)
O'Reilly's War (Mike Bohling, Dec 18, 2005)
The Opposite of Good is Apathy (Cindy Sheehan, Jan 7, 2006)
The Circle of Greed: Sleeping With the Enemy (Mark Faulk, Jan 18, 2006)
The Defendant is……Guilty? (David Thorough Milner, Feb 16, 2006)
Everybody Out of the Pool!! (Phil L. West, Mar 19, 2006)
Holy War (S.K. Eleton, Apr 9, 2006)
Fez-O-Phobia (Robin Buckallew, May 6, 2006)
The Ghost of Freud and Mr. Rumsfeld (Mark Faulk, May 28, 2006)
The Lords of Gaylordia (Mark Faulk, Jun 13, 2006)
Senator Shelby: "Naked short selling isn't fraud"....Wait, could you repeat the question? (Mark Faulk, Jun 26, 2006)
Our SEC Officials isn't Learning (Mark Faulk, Jul 9, 2006)
Once a Liar, Always a Liar (Mark Faulk, Aug 18, 2006)
NASD Charges NevWest in CMKX Saga...Justice at Last? (Mark Faulk, Sep 26, 2006)
To Be or Not to Be (Down the Middle, Oct 22, 2006)
Saddam Sentenced to Death – VOTE REPUBLICAN!!! (Mark Faulk, Nov 5, 2006)
Till death do us part.... (Mark Faulk, Jan 21, 2007)
Putting a Face on the Unborn Child: A Liberal Speaks out Against Abortion (Mark Faulk, Feb 21, 2007)
Living in Cramerica (Mark Faulk, March 24, 2007)
Oklahoma To Vote Again (Mark Faulk, April 30, 2007)
Memories (Down the Middle, May 26, 2007)
Censorship at the Speed of Light: US considers sending more troops to Iraq� or not (Mark Faulk, Jul 16, 2007 )
Adjö, Ingmar Bergman (Goodbye, Ingmar Bergman) (Robin Buckallew, July 30, 2007)
Barack Obama’s Blueprint for Change (Mark Faulk, Feb 4, 2008)
The Naked Truth: Investing in the Stock Play of a Lifetime (From Chapter 33 - The Maheu Factor) (Mark Faulk, Feb 20, 2008)
To The Oklahoma Lawmakers Who Passed SB1878 (Lauren Zuniga, May 10, 2008)
Do the Can-Can (Robin Buckallew, Jun 17, 2008)
|
|
|
