LIFE AND DEATH IN ALABAMA

		A fertilized egg is a treasure,
		a boon to the barren, a gift of hope.
		But in sweet home Alabama,
		the latest law gives embryos a bonus:
		eternal life.

		A judge decreed an egg fused with a sperm
		is now a U.S. citizen, with rights.
		If kept quick-frozen, zygotes live forever.
		Sperm donors will pass on.
		Parents will pass on.
		But grandchildren, great-grandchildren
		must keep potential ancestors in liquid nitrogen
		forever and ever. Amen.
		Any careless spills or thaws are murder.
		Any cells lost in the implant process-- serial murder.
		And murder is a capital offense.

		These microscopic cells don’t look like people.
		No face, no bones, no blood, no lungs;
		no organs, tissues, gender. 
		But one dogmatic judge decreed
		these cells are fully human. 
		That’s what his Church believes.
		Our founders erred-- Church ought to rule the State!
		His Church, of course. 

		Living children aren’t the law’s concern.
		In Alabama, school-aged kids 
		can work in factories— child labor. Cheap.
		Children of asylum-seekers? 
		Routinely ripped from parents’ arms
		and locked in cages. 
		Children of the poor are grudged food stamps,
		must fight red tape for every scrap of health care.
		And every day more kids are shot and killed.
		No, real youngsters aren’t priorities. 


		
		But embryos—now there’s a righteous cause!
		Eden’s tree, that bore enticing fruit,
		has sprouted in the courtroom, promising 	
		knowledge of good and evil.
		Alabama’s judge has tasted insight;
		his laws prevent Eve’s needy daughters
		from seeking IVF—lest cells be wasted. 
		Decrees deny a babe in arms to parents
		out of respect for life. 

		He reads God’s mind, this Alabama judge. 
		Or speaks, perhaps, for someone else
		that lurks in Eden, hissing… 


		Copyright 2/24               Patricia Doyne