Choice Over Life
I saw a picture of myself as a child
Six years old, innocent
Only a year or so before that first time
I found myself in a compromising position
With a boy who told me it was no big deal
My heart breaks for her
Because she felt her body wasn’t her own
The last time was maybe a few months ago
Nearly forty years later
When I, again, felt my body wasn’t mine
What made it okay for others to decide
To snatch away my autonomy
As though I didn’t have a high enough clearance
To view my body as sovereign, sacred
Capable of more than being a breeding ground
For lives that ultimately don’t matter
To those preaching that life begins at conception
I am thankful I never became pregnant
Not forced into the position to be an incubator
For a life used as a bargaining chip
And method of control from out of touch men
And the women clutching to their coattails
Setting the double standard
Guaranteed that those in power will always
Have access to what they deny everyone else
- Skaja Evens 2022
Skaja Evens is a writer and artist living in Southeast Virginia. She edits It Takes All Kinds, a litzine published by Mōtus Audāx Press. She’s been published in Spillwords Press, The Dope Fiend Daily, The Rye Whiskey Review, and The Crossroads Lit Magazine.
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