March for My Life © Laura Craig Mason 2004 He bore a sign screaming 'thank god my mom chose life' somehow forgetting the nuance behind that operative word: choice. I chanted back at him everything rhyming with body and choice. Strong words fallen on deaf ears; we stood only one guard rail divided. As a force we swarmed the mall beating cicadas by months and multitudes. Instead of infesting trees we spread freedom and shouted out democracy and i cried because i know now that I am not alone and i cried because this fight is getting so old and i cried surrounded by grandmothers and mothers children and men. And i am still completely dumbfounded by our mass and our magnitude. Our numbers will always be debated not unlike the witches burned and the generations lost to slim choices paired with coat hanger realities. But I'll remember your face: Alli, Angela, Cassie, Denise, Dorothy, Julie, Kim Krista, Mary, and all of you I met along the way. It won't be the movie stars, public figure and political speakers or folk singers that stick to this cerebral cortex but instead it will be the cold eyes of celibate priests who thought they knew a uterus better than me. and i cried because I know now that I am not alone and i cried because this fight is getting is so old and i cried surrounded by grandmothers and mothers children and men. and I am still completely dumbfounded by our mass and our magnitude. Salty from sweat, sunburned and made strong by solidarity with my sisters each chant welled from my core. We may have failed by merely shouting each other down but I won't forget the way you simply gave up on my stare; the way you simply looked away. Your thousand to my million may talk a good game but it fails every time it is faced with reality. For all of the eye contact I made that day with posters, protestors men, women, fighters and quitters doctors, lawyers socialists and those two pro choice republicans the one face that gave me the most hope was that one little girl whose life we fought for with every solid step towards the capital. |