A woman’s fury is blood deep
bone strong
uterine fierce
unstoppable.
No man can tame it
though many have tried.
We must unleash the howl of ages
uncoil our collective memory
proclaim our authority to self-rule
reclaim what has been erased, denied
stolen from our remembering mother tongues.
We must call down our midnight powers
put a hex on them, cast a spell
condemn their vile hubris that seeks
to dismember female sovereignty.
We must undo this horrific undoing
heed the wailing of our mothers
our grandmothers, our great-greats
far back into antiquity,
the ones they burned and tortured
the ones they killed in the name of uncivil civilization.
We must light the torch of resistance
let loose our chilling battle cry
fight, again, and again, and again
to overthrow this cruel and brutal
attempt to eviscerate
all that is innately, inextricably ours.
With every fiber of our endangered wombs
we must rage, rage
against this assault on all that is female, inviolable, sacred.
Rise up, sisters. Resist!
For our mothers and grandmothers,
our daughters and granddaughters,
for ourselves.
Author's note: this poem is from my collection of poetry, Motherlines (Pearlsong Press 2026); “The Howl of Ages” was originally published in Women’s Sovereignty and Body Autonomy Beyond Roe v. Wade, A Girl God Anthology, edited by Arlene Bailey, Pat Daly, Sharon Smith, and Trista Hendren, 2023.
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