day EIGHT HUNDRED and SEVENTY TWO

A PRIMER ON PRO-LIFE POLITICS

Ultimately, the only power to which man should aspire is that which he exercises over himself. - Elie Wiesel, writer, Nobel laureate (1928-2016)

the pro-life politician preaches:
the scantiest hint of life in the womb,
a scintilla, a quibble, a single split cell,
is sacred and must be protected at all costs -

but woe be to those who make it
out of the womb alive

because pro-life politics promotes the death penalty
because pro-life politics promotes a profit-driven prison system
because pro-life politics promotes poverty and hunger
because pro-life politics promotes dying for lack of medical care
because pro-life politics promotes the extinction of species
because pro-life politics promotes the rape of the environment
because pro-life politics promotes war and destruction

either life is sacred or it is not,
timing is not the issue,

let a man answer for his crimes, but
is the spark of life still burning within
the rapist, the molester, the murderer,
or this season’s designated enemy,

any less sacred than that within
the fetus they once were?

if the sacred is dependent on economic
inequality, on selective deviousness and luck,
on religion-defined circumstance greased
through the gears of political expedience
for the benefit of capital gains,

where does sanctity reside?
and can it ever survive the
self-righteousness of the
self-appointed guardians
who profess to protect it?

the pro-life politicians.

--M.J. Arcangelini