Women and Children

by Eyanna Kjirstin Roselund and Camilla Wells Paynter

1. For the Women Who Will Die

by Eyanna Kjirstin Roselund


you have passed them on the street
or sat beside them on the subway
or glimpsed through far-off windows the faces
of the women who will die

you may have watched a young girl
push the hair out of her eyes
and look up at you and smile
unaware of her fate now

or she may have served you coffee
or cut your hair or even
held your hand and wiped your brow and said “now push”
this woman who will die

incomprehensible the court
that sentences these lives to early graves
believing unforgivable the sin
of being human, and desiring love


 2. For the Children Who Will Live

by Camilla Wells Paynter


Naked and alone we came into exile. – Thomas Wolfe

in your mother's womb
you learned your guilt:
her, sobbing alone
on the bathroom floor

you, heaving with every sob
flesh of her flesh
her, your first love
and you, the cause

by the time you went hungry
from the shattering of her dreams
her, driving with the windows down
on the highway rumble-strips at night

when you played on the flea-infested carpet
of the single-wide
her, passed out
on the bathroom floor

you, writing i love you mama
in crayon
had already come to blame
your beating heart


* * * * *

Authors' Note: "Women and Children" are companion pieces written in response to the Supreme Court's June 6, 2022 action overturning the historic Roe v. Wade decision. They are intended as an expression of female solidarity, as well as a statement exposing the dual crime that this decision engenders.

Eyanna Kjirstin Roselund is an award-winning poet with membership in the Oregon Poetry Society and the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. She has sold her paintings in galleries throughout the western United States and Hawaii and is the author-illustrator of The Magician's Gift, a children's book showcasing her revival of ancient Viking Line Art. She is the mother of three wanted children.

Camilla Wells Paynter writes poetry, short fiction and creative non-fiction. She takes inspiration for her work from the Sacred Feminine as communicated to her through her dreams and the Oregon forest that embraces the picturesque log home in which she currently resides. She lives with her partner of 20-plus years, Jeff. She made the choice not to have children.