written on the one-year anniversary of Roe v Wade overturned
fetal heartbeat ...
a teen stares at Florida's skies
from the clinic window
FYI: A six-week abortion ban or early abortion ban, called a "heartbeat bill" or "fetal heartbeat bill" by proponents, is a form of abortion restriction legislation in the United States.
And Spiegel International, June 21: A Road Trip through Trump's America
Twenty-six states are led by Republican governors, and in 29, the party has a "super majority" in the state legislature, meaning there is essentially no opposition.
This haiku is a sequel to my haiku sequence:
First Post-Roe Independence Day
slanted light
the rise and fall
of her belly
unbroken heat
an 800-mile road trip
to the clinic
firework-lit sky
in the cheap motel window
a dream deferred
UnbornLivesMatter
blood-scrawled on the entrance
silence between us
what ifs ....
return trip from the clinic
in gathering dark
For more, see my tanka sequence, Roe v. Wade, then and now, and to be continued ... , published on June 25, 2022, one day after Roe v Wade overturned
Added: This Brave New World, XC
for LGBTQ+ activists in the USA and in memory of my friend, Brian Zimmer
the largest Pride March
winds its way down Fifth Avenue
through the West Village
and stops at the Stonewall Inn ...
two white-haired men French-kissing
FYI: The Stonewall Inn, New York is a gay bar & National Historic Landmark, site of the 1969 riots that launched the gay rights movement in the USA.
Brian posted the following Pride Parade (in Canada, Pride March in New York) tanka on Twitter on June 12, 2014, and he passed away on November 5th.
Gay Pride Parade
I live to see the day
a cop
greets his boyfriend
with a kiss on the street
I translated his tanka into Chinese and published it on NeverEnding Story on June 5, 2021
Added: This Brave New World, XCI
a teen sticks out her tongue
...then sucked in by another
Pride March past the church
FYI: Global News, June 22: Inside Norwich, an Ontario town at war with a church ‘controlling’ its citizens
Netherlands Reformed Congregation is one of signatories of The Niagara 2020 Declaration: on the Liberties of the [Fundamentalist, anti-LGBTQ+] Church in Canada from Sea to Sea
And CTV News, June 5: "Pride events in Canada facing higher safety and security costs, feds offer $1.5M"
Every day, we witness attacks in person at events and online targeting community leaders, event organizers, elected representatives, venues, artists and performers, families and young people.
-- Fierté Canada Pride, the National Association of Canadian Pride Organizations
