A Room of My Own: Before (and After) Roe v Wade Tanka

a blue-haired teen

with one hand on her belly

in the shadow

of the clinic's entrance

before (and after)  Roe v Wade

FYI:  Women reflect on what life was like before Roe v. Wade, PBS NewsHour, June 21

In light of the leaked Supreme Court opinion that would reverse the landmark Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade, the country faces the prospect of a future where abortion will no longer be legal nationwide. Amna Nawaz spoke to women who remember what life was like for them before Roe.

And today's tanka is a sequel to/relfection on the following tanka sequence, first published on NeverEnding Story, May 4 and written in response to the shocking leak of a draft of a Supreme Court majority opinion 

Roe v. Wade – Then and Now

the clinic

under a slate-gray sky

protesters shouting

at counter protesters

with their arms linked

alone

outside the closed clinic ...

a teenager

stretches her hand to catch

falling rose petals

the space telescope

launched to explore the birth

of this universe ...

safe haven baby boxes

wrapped in Mississippi sunset

bans off our bodies

as firm as marble steps ...

silhouetted

against the Supreme Court

a phalanx of women

once shouting 

my body, my choice, my life

in the pandemic ...

the MAGA crowd chant, Hey, hey. Ho, ho. 

Roe v. Wade has got to go 

(FYI: MAGA stands for Make America Great Again)

anger boils

over the Roe v. Wade leak

on TV

Afghan women covered 

head to toe in black

(FYI: The Washington Post, May 7,: Taliban orders head-to-toe coverings for Afghan women in public)

Added: This Brave New World, XLIV

written in response to election worker Ruby Freeman's tearful testimony in Tuesday’s Jan. 6 hearing: There is nowhere I feel safe. Nowhere. Do you know how it feels to have the "president" of the United States target you?” 

I only need

eleven thousand votes ...

a patient

in the empty hallway

barking at his own echo

FYI: "I only need 11,000 votes. Fellas, I need 11,000 votes. Give me a break:" Listen to the recording of President Donald Trump pressuring  Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger & other officials to "find" enough votes in GA’s presidential election to make him the winner. 

And this tanka could be read as a sequel to the following:

Trump's audio

to find votes in Georgia

gets loud and louder ...

I sort through crumpled balls

of poetry in the bin

NeverEnding Story, January 5, 2021