.

What Is “Pro-Choice”?

If my child were sent to die,
Be chopped to pieces like a pig,
To spare him death, I’d plead and beg,
__His life with mine to buy.

Yet pregnant moms demand their “rights”
To chop their children in their wombs
In hit-men’s bright and sterile rooms,
__As if they’re parasites.

To liberals, if a pregnant woman
Wants the baby, it’s her child.
If not, it’s vermin, it’s reviled;
__It somehow isn’t human.

To you who call yourselves “pro-choice:”
Your unborn victims have no voice.

.

.

God’s Way And My Way

I thought I could cheat the system
And fight all the rules and resist ’em,
But God has His way
At the end of the day;
Now I’ve too many problems to list ’em!

.

.

Joshua C. Frank works in the field of statistics and lives near Austin, Texas.  

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12 Responses

  1. Russel Winick

    Joshua:

    I enjoyed both poems. Thanks for them. The first rings especially true in light of many Democrats now saying that the right to an abortion should exist up to the moment of birth, which is roughly SIX MONTHS AFTER the “right” invented by the Supreme Court in Roe fifty years ago.

    Reply
    • Joshua C. Frank

      I’m glad you like them! Thanks for that bit of info, I didn’t know that.

      Reply
  4. Brian Yapko

    Both very fine poems, Joshua. God’s Way is short, sweet and makes a good point about spiritual corner-cutting. It reminds me of the old expression “Man plans and God laughs.”

    But it’s your “Pro-Choice” poem that’s the stand-out. I can’t imagine a stranger subject for a sonnet but you use the form to great effect and you are absolutely fearless in your choice of words and imagery. It’s in-your-face memorable and your boldness allows you to succeed admirably in being a voice for the voiceless.

    Reply
    • Joshua C. Frank

      Brian, thank you so much for that review! I’m so glad you like them. One question, though: does it still count as a sonnet if it’s not in iambic pentameter, and doesn’t have the “Volta” structure or any of the accepted classical sonnet rhyme schemes (Petrarchan, Shakespearean, Spenserian)? I guess that would make it more of a “sonnet variant” (named by analogy to chess variants).

      Reply
  5. Margaret Coats

    The limerick is a very good one, but “What is ‘Pro-Choice'” is a superb, straightforward look at a situation where language has been abused to vainly try and disguise the known horror.

    Reply
    • Joshua C. Frank

      Margaret, well said! That was exactly my intent. I don’t even like that the word “abortion” is used instead of “killing,” just as I don’t like the phrase “ethnic cleansing” for genocide.

      Reply
  6. Susan Jarvis Bryant

    “What Is “Pro-Choice”? is one helluva hard-hitting piece and should be read far and wide. Every stanza is a powerful slap in the face for all those who have grown indifferent to or have no idea of the horrors of abortion. It deals with the plain, cold truth – the truth many of these young women, coerced into making this heartbreaking decision, don’t hear.

    “God’s Way And My Way” is a wise smile of a limerick. I love it! Both poems are very well done indeed!

    Reply
  7. Joshua C. Frank

    Susan, thank you so much for your review! It means so much from such a talented poet as yourself. Your description is, dare I say, as powerful as the poem itself! I agree that it should be read far and wide… maybe we should all spread it far and wide, get as many eyeballs on it as possible, and tell the readers to do the same? That would be an interesting idea…

    Reply

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