How can it get anymore

basic than water breaking,

amniotic fluid flowing

down legs, placenta

popping and a baby

emerging from the darkness

grunted out of the watery

womb into life with deep,

deep breaths by Muslim,

Jewish, Christian, Buddhist,

Taoist, Sikh and, among

others, atheist women?  Why

do their men insist on killing

those children as they grow

into soldiers and why do

those who suffered so much

in childbirth and experienced

that common thread of pain

and joy and ecstasy permit

it and when, oh, when will

they join in the solidarity

of birth and say, no more

to the pain that knows no

joy or ecstasy only the

termination of that joy

and the blood lust of

killing another male’s

offspring?