Amy Barlow Liberatore… stories of lost years, wild times, mental variety, faith, and lots of jazz

Tag Archives: We Write Poems

While I don’t view abortion protesters per se, I am pro-choice for the simple reason that rich women will have and have always had access to safe, doctor-performed abortions. Why should the Karadashian sisters be able to have an abortion when they have an OOPS!, while a girl who was hit on by daddy, or a woman worn down by dealing with the eight kids she already has, and bound by her religion to not insist her husband wear a condom, have less? Opponents of abortion should also put themselves in the shoes of those poor sisters. Amy

ABORTION PROTESTER (WWP, walk in the shoes of enemies)

Man and women together in mutual embrace
create life within the woman’s womb
At first it looks like tissue, merely a cyst
but so quickly it assumes human form

How can a woman who created in love
vacuum away this baby like so much flotsam?
How can a man stand by with no opinion
as this precious fruit is torn ruthlessly from the vine?

A doctor who swears to “first, do no harm”
is murdering an innocent child
and, offering no counseling to the mother,
calmly points her toward the desk so she can pay

Small wonder I’m out here with my sign
and a fake fetus in a jar, here in the hot sun
I’ll scream til this profitable industry is ended
I don’t believe in the death penalty, but then again…

© 2010 Amy Barlow Liberatore, Sharp Little Pencil


Well, I had two people on my mind this week. I pray for them both, as Jesus told us to pray for our enemies. My prayer life is very busy – for the first, I pray that the true spirit of Islam enter his soul; for the second, I pray that he find his way past the pretense that he’s a model Christian. When wars are fought, God – Allah, Jehovah, Adonai, Mother and Father – can only weep.

TWO MEN, SO DIFFERENT, SO ALIKE (WWP Prompt)

I was called by God
to seek revenge for what they did to us
Gathering my forces
Forging alliances as I was able
(usually with cash aplenty)
Together we blew up symbols of
their greed, their avarice, their hubris
And now they whittle away what resources they have left
trying to make sure we don’t hit them the same way again.
In this way, I have led our people to triumph.
I am Osama bin Laden

I was called by God
to seek revenge for what they did to us
Gathering my forces
Forging alliances with one major country and a few smaller ones
(and borrowing the funds from the Chinese)
Through no-bid contracts and undercover torture, we fought
their conspiracy, their evil, their hubris
And now they are running, hiding, cunning
We will never catch them on their home turf.
By handing the quagmire over to the next president, I retired, smug.
I am George W. Bush

© 2010 Amy Barlow Liberatore, Sharp Little Pencil


Dorothy Miller Richardson’s “Pointed Roofs” was presented to us at http://www.wavepoetry.com/erasures/ by Angie at We Write Poems, where we answer a weekly prompt on Thursdays.  The process is fascinating; wavepoetry gives you the chance to click and unclick different words in a block of text until you come up with what is essentially your own poem, but always giving credit to the source text.  Mine is entitled, “Long Lace Faces” and is rather serious.

I attempted to write mine out and to save it in different formats; having failed at that, here is the link so you can see the finished product in its original form.  When you’re done reading, have at my second erasure, also listed under “more poems,” (a funny one:  “Mooning Has Its Consequences,” based on Aristophanes’ “Clouds.”

Then try one yourself!  All I’m saying is, words are fun to play with, and the Internet has provided, through sites like wavepoetry.com, opportunities to stretch oneself.

http://www.wavepoetry.com/erasures/erasures.php?poemid=2445