My Sister
By Devreaux BakerAdded: Thursday, July 24, 2014 / Baker's poem won Second Prize in the 2013 Abortion Rights Poetry Contest. Split This Rock is proud to co-sponsor this contest with the Abortion Care Network.Last night my sister came to my table
Trailing stories from the other world
Trailing remnants of all our mother’s people
She spoke words that fell from her mouth
Like amulets or a voodoo curse
Against that long line of men
That taught their sons to rape women
Last night my long dead sister came to my table
She said this is what I did
Drove myself to that alley
On the side street of New Castle Bridge
Walked four blocks to the door with the paint
Peeling off it’s front where the drunk lying in the gutter
Told me to knock three times and this is what I did
It was a man with no name who took me inside
Said lay down and stick this rag in your mouth
Said don’t be looking at me
Said this is gonna hurt
Said you came to me cause you aint got no money
And this is against the law in this land
So shut your mouth and open your legs
And this is what I did
I walked back down his stairs
And walked four blocks back
To my car
I drove myself home and
He was right
I had no place to go
I had to carry the weight of his knife
Inside my body, the way he pushed me out
His door
Last night my sister’s ghost sat down
To break bread at my table
She said this is what I did
Lay in my bed alone after he did that back alley abortion
Until I felt my soul bleed out of my body
And I flew above all the dirty rooms
And saw the girls just like me
With no place to go
Except to a man with no name
Ready to take their money
And push them out the door
At the end of a hallway
Four blocks from anywhere you might know.