Poem: "Birthshaking Changes"
This poem came out of the November 6, 2012 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from baaing_tree and Anthony & Shirley Barrette. It has been sponsored by Anthony & Shirley Barrette. You can read more about Margaret Sanger and Emma Goldman online.
Birthshaking Changes
Margaret Sanger was an activist,
a sex educator, and a nurse.
She coined the term "birth control,"
opened the first birth control clinic
in the United States,
and established Planned Parenthood.
She started a monthly newsletter,
The Woman Rebel.
Emma Goldman was an anarchist
imprisoned several times
for inciting people to riot
and illegally distributing information
about birth control.
She founded the anarchist journal,
Mother Earth.
They were among the first,
but they would not be the last,
to fight for women's right
to own their own bodies
and have the final say in deciding
what should happen therein,
or not.
They and their allies launched
the reproductive rights movement
which brought birthshaking changes,
tearing apart two things
that had formerly been united
since the beginning of time:
sexual pleasure and procreation.
They moved the cheese out of the mousetrap,
and everyone went apeshit over it.
It's all so much storm and angst --
if there is a God,
why give us brains and expect us
not to use them?
if there is no God,
then why have brains and science
and not use them?
Say cheese.
Say cake.
Say cheesecake.
And you don't have to
bake anything in your oven
unless you want to.