“American Progress” by Janae Lu
January 23, 2025
June 24th, 2022.
In Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization,
The U.S. Supreme Court overruled 50 years of precedent
Overturning Roe v. Wade.
Yet when I try to swallow this “American Progress”
It’s made bitter with regression,
And I’ve never tasted irony served so dry ¾
My rights washed down by “God’s will”,
Having to claw their way back up my throat just to take a breath.
We are fish drowning in our own water.
We are birds with clipped wings being told to fly.
We are teenage girls begging for the rights
That our mothers had,
Bargaining for our own bodies,
But they are determined to steer our sovereignty.
They have hijacked our rights ¾
I saw it with my own eyes;
They took us by our own volition,
Pointed us in the opposite direction,
And then I watched them nosedive;
I watched as they burned up 50 years of our bodily autonomy
And used the ash to bury us alive.
But still I have been told,
Thank God we live in Washington,
But you seem to mispronounce my human rights as luck
Because there are women in Alabama, Arkansas, and Idaho,
Ones whose names I don’t even know
But still, there are women
In Kentucky, Mississippi, and Texas,
Thousands more in South Dakota and Tennessee
And we can hear their cries
From Seattle and we are echoing their chant,
Swinging our voices like axes.
We are chipping away at your audacity like wood.
We are using this insolence as fuel;
Prodding the patriarchy like a campfire,
And watching it go up in flames.
You can try to burn up 50 years of our bodily autonomy,
But we’re ready to fight fire with fire,
And trust me there is no kindling like justice.
You can strip us of our rights;
You can pull us apart until all that is left is our persistence;
You can take our skeleton so we can’t stand up on our own,
But I will always have this bone to pick with you.
June 24th, 2022.
In Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization,
The U.S. Supreme Court overruled 50 years of precedent
Overturning Roe v. Wade.
That night the women of America went to sleep
With cages built from legislation,
And silence forced upon our bodies,
And that night the U.S. Supreme Court called it “American Progress”.
This poem was written by Janae Lu, the 2024-25 Seattle Youth Poet Laureate. Performed at the Seattle Arts & Lectures Literary Arts event with Percival Everett at Town Hall Seattle on Thursday, January 23, 2025.