Francesca Bell’s poems have appeared in many journals, including Willow Springs, North American Review, River Styx, 5 AM, Passages North, and The Sun. More of her work can be found in Volume 2, Issue 1 of burntdistrict.
IN WHICH MARY ADVISES YOU TO HAVE THE ABORTION
By Francesca Bell
In the beginning,
every last one of them
overshadows like a god.
Their flesh, with its insistent power
of resurrection, rends easily
your inadequate membrane,
silly shroud that surrenders
as destiny is foisted upon you.
A woman’s door is always ajar.
A child makes itself at home,
swelling her, as death does
the body, leaving it belching
and bloated. Be it not unto me,
you’ll beg, to drag this weight
through the marketplace,
made to love what excruciates.
Undo the indelible.
Speak your belated No
to the great god –
His rigidity, His swarming,
innumerable spermatozoa.