The Struggle Never Ends

Some struggles never end.  It seems that reproductive rights, and the guarantee of privacy for them will never be settled law or even common-sense attitude in this country.  The spoken-word piece below was originally written in 2004, but the name list has changed over time to reflect current dramatis personae.

God Has a Plan B

I have figured out why

Bush, Ashcroft, Rove and Falwell

Akin, Ryan, the Vatican and South Dakota

Roberts, Alito, Gorsuch and Thomas

fear the woman with choice –

Because her god can beat their god

with one arm tied behind her back

Her god, my god has a Plan B.

My god is not foiled

by the knitting needle, the coat hanger

the pennyroyal, periwinkle, RU-486

or the compassionate physician.

My god does not stand helplessly by

wringing her hands and

whining to the next

Ghandi, Mother Teresa

Albert Einstein or Margaret Sanger

why they’ll never be born.

She just fills out a new boarding card

pats them on the head

and sends them on their way.

I have always known my limitations.

It is not for me to decide

which spirits will grace this earth.

But it is for me to decide

whether to invite them

into my body and into my life.

When the Great Mother comes knocking –

The answer can be no.

So to patriarchs everywhere –

Have a little faith in the powers that be.

Render unto God what is God’s -

But render unto Woman what is Woman’s.

Eileen McCabe-Olsen  04/26/2004 – 05/01/2004

2013 version  - change named people in the first stanza to Akin, Ryan, the Vatican and South Dakota