Since the legalization of abortion 45 years ago millions of women have bought the lie that the death of this new life forming in them will somehow save theirs. And now they live with pain and shame and mocking of that lie.
Today in thinking about being a woman, a mom, a sister, a daughter and bearing in my body the mark of redemption specifically as a woman in being granted the ability to die to myself, even to bleed so that another might live, I penned this plea to my sisters. Today they may especially feel the gnawing burden of their guilt for trying to save their own life by ending the one growing inside them.
Praying it’s a balm of healing to someone.
We Bear the Mark
by Sheila Dougal
We bear the pain
The slain
The stain
Laden with shame
It’s embarrassing
Better to say nothing
Pelvis cramping
Dark bloody foul seeping
A clockwork reminder
Pain and life together
Try to rip out the pain
With it hope for life slain
We bear the mark
Filthy rags rep the heart
Of corrupt man
And his proud plan
Woman you will bleed
One way or another
As a sign of mans vain progress
Or the sign of hope among us
But when you bleed
From sterile hands
Inserting instruments
Tearing life from your womb
Because of the lie that looms
Woman you bleed
Taking life from another
The very sign of your future
Meant to be a mother
You cannot bear the stain
The shame
The pain
Of saline burns
Or ripping limbs
Or sterile rod
Slaughtering
Your flesh and blood within
O woman
You cannot
Labor or bear
Your bloody plot
But there is One
Who bore the pain
Your murderous stain
your child slain
No drink no pill
Can your wound heal
No high position
No compensation
Your loud proud shouts
Your rights you tout
But your shame remains
You cannot picket it away
Every month maybe two
You bleed
Filthy rags testify against you
Self-sacrificing hope
Your menstruation once spoke
But now every pain
Every bloody stain
Cries out
Innocence taken
Is there hope
Now that life you smote
You were sucked in by the lie
If you cling to your life
Someone else can die
You swallowed the seductive fruit
You’ll be happier
Healthier
Wealthier
Have time to be wiser
But now bloody nightmare
Signs everywhere
Can’t escape
Worse than rape
Your bloody sign
You were supposed to die
Not that innocent life inside
You were made in the image
Of the One who bore your shame
Your stains
Your blame
He died he bled
Laid down his life
In your stead
This is the hope
In every woman’s bleeding
In every cramp and pain
In every long night no sleeping
Not that we can save ourselves
Or even our inconvenient progeny
But that we bear the mark
Of the Savior of humanity
He who bled for our sins
Placed this sign in our endometrium
To bleed for another
Life giving bloody womb of a mother
Oh dear woman
You may not know
But something inside
Haunts as it lies
You know your lost
Deep in sins pride
It eats you alive
And mocks while you die
You thought you could cling
To your life and be free
But instead
Holding tight bleeding death
You’ve lost your meaning
Wake up wake up
It is a nightmare indeed
But Christ has come
Giving life while he bleeds
Don’t stay in that trap
One more second don’t pass
There’s life to be found
Your guilt nailed thru his wound
You didn’t let your body be torn
So a new life could be born
Instead you were ripped
Dilated and delivered death
He knows
He was there
When the flagellum tore
Your homicide he bore
There is no escape
Unless you turn to him
Your pride grip on life
Will leave your hands dripping foul
Sliding down into deaths mocking howl
Let the blood of your womb
Take your mind to the one
Who took your guilt to the tomb
O woman
O mother
O daughter of Eve
You bear the mark
Not of you but of He
