You punch through the foil, place the last pill on your tongue and with water sip.
The errand, picking up the new batch that will lead to the sound of the maxi pad’s impolite rip.
Walking downhill on a poorly plowed sidewalk to the pharmacy
Taking baby steps over ice and puddles in fear that you might slip.
You’re between doctors making access impossible without a prescription.
They don’t just let you buy it day and night like cough drops and nasal strips.
You are grateful that your insurance covers birth control. You are grateful
you have insurance at all, where it’s not a right, but a political bargaining chip.
But miraculously you obtain it, and back uphill you go,
a battle won in this fight of reproductive hardships.
Elevator buttons glow orange-gold like stationary
pats of butter. You ignite them with your fingertip.
In your own space again, you hold the apothecary parcel
and unlatch the fold of white paper from the staple’s grip.
All this just to choose yourself for another month Ms. B.
All this just to remain the Knight of your birthing hips.
image source: PBS NewsHour’s article, “‘Substantial number’ of women could lose birth control coverage under rule, judge says,” January 11, 2020.
Gail Bello is from Waltham, Massachusetts. She is a recent BFA grad who writes poetry and plays. She looks forward to whatever comes next with a positive and hopeful heart. Find her previous publications at thaumaturegedramaturge.wordpress.com. She is thrilled and honored to be a part of Headline Poetry & Press’s #RoevWade-related Project. You can follow Gail on Twitter.
