Sonnet to the Fifty-One Senators Who Voted Against the Women’s Health Protection Act by Joanne Durha

Sonnet to the Fifty-One Senators Who Voted Against the Women’s Health Protection Act

by Joanne Durham published in Plum Tree Tavern, July 2022

I don’t have a personal story to pull at your heartstrings. Never bled sterile from a coat hanger. Never carried a child inside my body minus a mouth or a windpipe, knowing they would die within days strangled on their own breath. Was young and naive but never paid the price. In America, we elect you for your adorable puppy and three smiling children, spaced apart like their perfectly braced teeth. Then you abort compassion -- your heartstrings broken. Our shared story is watching five deemed Supreme smirk us back to the Dark Ages.