Rituals of Blood
Blood prodded me to resign as a Jew.
Our Hebrew School teacher told
17 boys and 3 girls that God forbids us
to make love when our blood flows.
The 17 boys tittered
and 3 girls blushed, but I knew
I would always want to make love,
even if it was my time of blood.
I don’t know how I knew it,
but it proved true and 3 months later,
my first period began. The ache never
dampened desire. Ten year later
policemen bloodied us, shoving
supporters for Roe v Wade and the ERA
down stairs, We broke bones.
One of us had a heart attack.
In red states, women are bleeding
and dying again. Always rituals of blood,
like old rituals of water against women
who drowned innocent, weighed down by rocks.
*
Laurel Brett began writing poetry at fifteen because she loved writing with her purple flair pen. Since that time, she has become a college teacher, mother, political activist, literary critic, essayist and novelist. Her novel, THE SCHRÖDINGER GIRL, was published by Akashic Books (2020). Her essays and poems have appeared in The New York Times, Lilith, The Nassau Review, the anthology SONGS FOR SEASONED WOMEN, edited by Patti Tana, and the writing text, COMPLEMENTS, among other places. Two of her poems will appear in subsequent issues of SECOND COMING in March and April. She considers herself a refugee from the sixties. Her love of poetry began in seventh grade on a rainy day when she read a poetry anthology found on her parents’ book shelf cover to cover.