There is life here even now; tiny, brave, fighting, determined for survival
Even when the baby is just a width of a thread, every fine movement
Of brain, fingers, eyes, toes; placenta is connected via a telepathic link

There are shadows of darkness that play on these walls, a Bible next to one of the beds
in the ward, she is transfixed by the fluorescent light, mesmerised and she thinks about
all the consequences of her actions that brought her here, the sacrifice.

There is a transmission of ideas inside her head; ideas of what sought of her prayer
she should be saying, ideas of what people, the brothers and sisters
in her church would say; the question that asks her whether this is her God-given right.

To a soul, the mother and then to God – she destroys that soul forever by walking away.
Everyone thinks they are winning a war to some effect – in war there is always death; casualties, gigantic slogans plastered on walls, protests, marches and human rights

Are the young mothers sick with worry and fear or just relief before the process?
Do they await the nurse with feverish anticipation or can’t wait for it to be all over?
Will this waiting game over the right to choose ever be over?

Daily newspapers headlines scream ‘baby found in an apple box by a
Security guard’ or ‘it’s against Christianity’, ‘against the will of God’;
Until the light is finally snuffed out of the foetus who hears tinny sounds

From far off like the noise of a muffled drum, where their was life before
Now there is only red seeping out of a female body on if she’s lucky
A hospital bed; a life is uprooted before its time to be given a chance to do

Good in the world, it will never have a voice or an opinion that matters
It is never to be heard of or seen again and what hope is the young mother left with
In the end? We’re living in a renaissance, the age of the digital divide, of computers,

Of poor service delivery, backstreet abortions, human rights violations, xenophobic
Attacks, homophobia, peer pressure in schools, teenage pregnancy, peace, diplomacy, war, crime, injustice, education, yet this same woman, this girl is not yet a woman.