Roe V. Dobbs

Roe++++++++++V. +++++++++Dobbs

All of your rulings— ++++++++++don’t defend me,
you put the screws to +++++++++a mother, I declare
my ovaries, my womb +++++++++my own red jewels.
stripped by America’s +++++++++pitiless spirits. Cruel,
men who are dead and gone +++++the fascist right-wayers have
taken my health care +++++++++hung me, on a hanger
pained me penniless +++++++++slit me, gutted, I drip pus,
called me bloody slut +++++++++I’m not+ in Kansas anymore
no fairy tales ++++++++++++++I’m incested, a rape case,
Arrested by the closed robe’s ++++anatomy of poverty,
my back’s-up, Against it +++++++the alley’s only wall.

 

 



Click here to read Pamela Gemme on the origin of the poem.

Image: Photo by Gayatri Malhotra on Unsplash, licensed under CC 2.0.

Pamela Gemme: In general, I am not a fan of discussing my process, but I’ll make an exception because, the subject is so urgent. I have been reading about women’s health care issues, including abortion, that stoked the muse within me to write this poem. I was also influenced by the poetess, Tarfia Faizullah, whose writes Aubade Ending with the Death of a Mosquito, a contrapuntal poem I admire.

In addition, I have fought for women’s rights my whole life, so I think this poem came more easily than some of my other poems. I finished it in about three weeks, which is unusual for me because I peck away at work for months before I allow it to be free.

Roe V. Dobbs is a contrapuntal poem that illustrates two sides of an issue in conversation with one another. I began with it as a whole, then, divided it, worked the lines into one another until it was whole again. I prefer to refer to the contrapuntal as a puzzle poem that evokes the dual consciousness of an idea.

Pamela Gemme
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