Feminist poetry: The Oceans and Mountains and Valleys

Woke up after a nightmare

shivering in sweat

felt bleak and bewildered

just lying in my bed. 

I’d become an old lady 

with a 40 year-old son 

in a world so confusing

everything undone.

My son wanted 

his vasectomy reversed

all the visions of fatherhood

his mind had rehearsed.

His dreams of a daughter

or son, he didn’t mind

he just wanted his own child 

and told me, smiling, ‘it’s time’.

He came back from the clinic

with tears in his eyes

after two female doctors

told him now’s not the time.

He hadn’t filled out

the right papers 

or paid the right price

Hadn’t asked Juliet the Mayor

for her advice. 

‘It doesn’t seem right’

he paused to weep

‘these women talk about my body

like its theirs to keep’ .

Woke up in reality

a 17 year-old girl

in Baton Rouge, Louisiana

gets in her vehicle

to drive 500 miles 

to the nearest safe clinic. 

She can drive alone at that age

but is her body hers? 

Seems like it isn’t. 

Driving through the Texan Plains 

a police car flags her down

‘And where are you going, honey?’

he grins, standing over her now.

She thinks how he looks a bit like the guy

who started this.

Who promised her things 

that turned out to be lies.

She smiles politely 

and tells him she’s late

for a visit with her sick grandmother

in New Mexico state. 

He finds this acceptable

and lets her go.

She continues to drive

tears well in her eyes.

All her savings on gas and medical bills

for a secret appointment. 

This lonely journey

and the support she won’t get.

Keeping quiet about

how it all unfurled

because who’d believe

a 17 year-old girl? 

Woke up at the clinic

before leaving the car

she pulls on a cap and sunglasses

sees a TV crew, not far.

‘Would you like to talk?

We just want to help you

here, have this bible

there’s still time to save you’.

‘You’ll regret it forever 

if you don’t do what God asks 

why won’t you talk to me?’ 

‘Please let me past’ 

Woke up in the afterlife

waiting for days

at the pearly gates 

maybe this is where I’ll stay.

The gates finally open

I’m blinded by light

surrounded by warmth

like a chemical high.

I see Him there, surrounded by fans 

will I have my chance, to ask Him his plans? 

Without needing to speak, He answers my question

with unimaginable love, He gives me the lesson:

‘My child, I built the oceans 

and mountains and valleys

to show you how much

I just want you to be happy’ .