INCANTATION FOR AUTONOMY

And so, I whisper into scorched grass

a call to all of the witches burned for being feral bodies.

I beg you to show yourselves in the fireplaces

of congressional figures who make choices against the autonomy of

these righteous bodies that cradle a uterus.

Scream something unholy thru the pilot lights of their furnaces.

Haunt the warmth of their existence with a raving and

howling hunger they cannot possibly feed.

First, each man who aims to carve an orphanage of cribs from our hip

bones; provoke him to strip naked in the center of town, account for

every blemish on his holy flesh.

And then, dance wild and naked in the prayer candles

of every goody woman who robs choice from our mouths.

Drive her into the river to prove she can sink

gracefully as only a truly righteous woman would.

Come dear witches, remind them of what we can do

when our bodies are used as evidence for our undoing.