My Years Of Reproductive Health And Miscellaneous Poem by Gayathri Seetharam

My Years of Reproductive Health
-Gayathri B. Seetharam
"I miss my red dress" for I am 51 years of age
And it had a flowing quality and a worn often look
With flowery patterns
That made me feel special;

During my feminist engineer years,
I had not associated motherhood with so much of joy
And it was a wonderful feeling
To hold the baby who could not suckle easily at my
Ample sized breasts overflowing with milk;

He had to be cajoled by a lactation consultant
Into suckling greedily at my breast
And when he did it for the first time,
I experienced a sense of elation, of victory
As good as that of successfully defending my thesis and
Graduating with three degrees in chemical engineering
And working for two years with a sizeable income
After my baby was 22 months old;

Babies and reproductive health
Are top of the chart on the list of issues
In sparely populated Canada
Where healthcare is a well handled issue
Although there have been funding cuts by Premier Doug Ford in Ontario
In this direction and the promised drug plan by PM Justin Trudeau
Is yet to materialise as a federal policy;

A successful government recognises its engineers and doctors and professors
As people who are the backbone of the social infrastructure
And a Prime Minister to succeed to the hilt in people's expectations of
How his performance should be,
Should evaluate all people on their professional and work achievements;

That would be the utopian Canada
But on the positive side, it is not a dystopian society either,
This sort of making allowances for our leaders to "fuddle duddle" up,
Defeats the purpose of having them elected to champion our cause
As citizens of Canada;

By no means do we live in a perfect society if our rights are infringed on
And if the Wet'suewet'en people have a grievance in the fact
That the TransCanada pipeline is being constructed on their land,
And if their land is not protected by a treaty,
It is a sad matter
But PM Trudeau is headed in the right direction in having
A set of talks with the indigenous Wet'suewet'en people;

A leader so right in many ways
Has to be shown the pros and cons of his entire decision
And it is the mark of a great leader that he is willing to be
Persuaded in the right direction.