I wrote this poem whilst reflecting on the experiences of women and reproductive rights, namely the near-total ban on abortion in Poland, legally reinforced on 27th January this year. Poland’s abortion law remains one of the strictest in Europe, allowed only if the mother’s life is in danger or the pregnancy is the result of a criminal act.
I urge you to read this poem twice: firstly, from the perspective of a woman discovering her unexpected pregnancy, and secondly, from the perspective of the unborn child. The former, unable to obtain the abortion rights she wishes, slips into a dangerous depression. The latter, an unborn foetus, clings desperately to life. I hope that reading this might prompt some interesting and enormously important discussions.
I think I am going to like it here.
The current is constant.
Seaweed strokes my legs,
As if I were a child,
Welcomed home,
Brushing off the mud
After running on the earth for so
long.
I want to stay here forever.
It is a good life.
The sand struck in
Splinters of glass,
But I feel no pain –
It is just the same again.
A pound of flesh, a ton
Of water, neither son
Nor daughter, just some fun –
Should I?
I want to stay here forever.
It is a good life.
The promise of serenity swept
Me – an underwater stream
Tugging out my legs
From underneath me.
The deep will have won.
It cannot be undone.
Do I let it?
Would I?
I want to stay here forever.
It is a good life.
Eight, and seven, six and five.
Am I a fish caught alive?
Four, and three. A plea
From deep within, but two –
never reeled it in.
Will I be one,
With sea and sky?
Could I?
Do I lie?
I want to stay here forever.
It was a good life.
Image: by Nancy Kennedy on Flickr Commons