Poem: This is My Body

I love life.
I love women.
I love babies.
I love people
and want them
to flourish and thrive.
I believe pregnancy is magic,
birth is beautiful,
and wombs are miracle-makers.
I believe children are a gift
and life is holy.
AND,
this is my body,
inviolate.
This body belongs to me,
self-sovereign and whole.
I claim my right
to choose my way,
to inhabit myself fully
and completely
without fear or coercion.
This is my body, my temple.
I am my own sacred space
and I shall not be colonized
by another’s will.
It is possible to hold both/and,
to BE both/and,
to hold holy yes
and sacred no as
precious and inalienable
rights of our own free hearts,
bodies, wills, and souls.
Blessed be my body,
sacred site of life and passion.
Blessed be my body,
sacred site at which I say,
“no more.”