Life is Precious

"Life is precious.

That is God's child."

Your thesis with no argument.

Your veil for your desire to control.

"Life is precious.

How could you?

Baby killer!"

Yet you could never think of,

or get to the root,

or try to understand

why I gaze at the clinic.

"Life is precious."

And nobody is saying that it isn't.

As if we find joy in it.

As if abortion is an Olympic sport.

"Yes! I love having my child 

scraped out of me! Yes!

I find great pleasure in frantically coming up

with 300 dollars, and I tango

on my way to the clinic!

All women should do it!"

Yet you don't comprehend,

or don't seem to want to comprehend.

Because the truth so strongly upsets

your neat world

that it must be concealed with your weak chant:

"Life is precious."

Sex is wrong.

Sex is dirty and obscene,

so we wince at the sex scenes

on television and in movies

and at the shirtless men

and at the women who dare to wear f**k-me dresses for their own enjoyment,

and Elvis and Prince and Madonna

and their sinful writhing and hip-shaking.

So in your face. So obscene.

Because we've run away from ourselves,

our humanity,

and when it's so raw, it reminds us of

our nature,

so we cringe.

Our sons and daughters would never dare 

to touch themselves.

And if it's not talked about,

it's not happening,

and if it's not happening,

then it doesn't exist,

am I right?

So sex education is a joke in this country

and we wander through life with these myths.

When I was an impressionable freshman,

I took health class.

I was never taught

how to put on a condom.

Never learned about birth control.

"Abstinence is the best option."

Because sex is so wrong

and dirty,

but we burst with hormones.

Society and science clash,

they can never coexist

because we know nothing

because sex is wrong.

"Life is precious."

I never said that it wasn't,

but I didn't know any better

because no one taught me.

"Life is precious."

You say, so you raise millions

and millions to donate to the politicians

who support you

and can get that legislation through

like a snake,

but not money to 

fund sex education

to prevent the abortions in the first place.

"Life is precious.

You can give it up for adoption."

Let's not forget the poor,

minority mothers. Give it up for adoption?

Such a long process, adoption.

And if no one wants that black baby

or that Mexican baby, then what?

Foster care? An angry child

who may end up with mental health problems

who may end up in and out of jail

or dependent on the social services

that you vehemently despise

but will have to pay for anyway?

"Life is precious.

Keep that child."

You adamantly want this child to live,

yet you fail to see

why I could never raise this child.

I don't have the money.

You so strongly want a life for this child?

Then how about this,

from birth to age 18, would you pay for

the diapers?

the clothes, the food, the doctor visits,

the band aids, the school supplies,

the baby powder, the field trips,

the cribs, the toothpaste,

the car seats, the Christmas presents,

the birthday gifts, the school dances,

the Valentine cards for their classmates,

the road trips, the coloring books?

"Life is precious."

But it would be selfish of me

and especially you,

to bring a child into this world

and not give it the best life I could,

and even disrupt the nuclear family

that you all try so hard to maintain.

"Life is precious.

Abortion should be illegal."

Simple economics, supply and demand.

The black market would return.

The alleyways, the so-called "doctors".

The return to a woman risking her life,

to try and prevent her child from having a lackluster one,

because she didn't know any better,

because you say she shouldn't have had sex in the first place,

because sex is vile,

because you said so.

Perhaps I'm crazy.

Call me a radical.

but when you get to the root,

it sounds like a desperate plea for control.

When I say I, and when I say me,

I speak for the half of the population.

Pro-life, pro-choice. It's not just about the baby,

or the morality of it, or "it's my body."

It's the forest, not the trees.

Our culture, not just the conception.

Life is precious.

I am here, 

I am alive,

I have a voice,

and it feels damn good to speak.

But it isn't so precious for my baby.

When I can't feed her 

vegetables and beans

because I don't have the means,

and instead she gets a lifetime supply

of burgers and fries.

When I can't do the things I want to do,

like take her to the zoo

because men in suits

who are so anti-government

yet so involved in my life

want to punish me for

not being a wife

and daring to indulge in my natural erotic.

Who dare to punish me

for being oblivious by their hands.

The ignorant w****s they create,

then shame for being so willing.

"Life is precious."

Reviews

[Karolina S.]

Very good! I especially liked the list of things you have to pay for when you have a child.