State of Peace: The Women Speak

Herewith, the latest selection from dusted-off published poetry and short fiction, circa 1970s vintage and beyond....

Reduction

The retired general
spat with rage
said he'd never send
.... "his boys"
into battle alongside
female recruits.

"Why that would detract
from the matter at hand...
the 'boys' would either
protect or violate
the women."

In one
fell swoop and so
delicately put the whole
gestalt of the sexes
reduced to saint and sinner
virgin and whore.

A solution rears
its obliging head.
Why not let all militarily inclined
male and female
on both sides
go to it on the battlefield.

As for the rest of us
reasonable ones
war resisters
pacifists, gentle lovers
we can go it in our way
two by two.

c. 1987 Rita Rosenfeld
published in State of Peace: The Women Speak