Wed
Lock
(Sonnet on the Terri Schiavo case)
A man shall
leave his father and his mother
And be united to his wife, the two
Shall be one flesh,
his pledge to take no other
'Till death them part. If this promise be true,
How shall a living husband his role serve
To his betrothed in "vegetative state"
These 15 years, of damaged brain and nerve
And lying comatose? Should we debate,
As Congress deems it has the right to do?
Should we, because a power-base delights
In "Right to Life," compel the husband's due
To collect from his wife conjugal rights?
Then chain this fellow to a righteous course
That yokes the living with an almost corpse.
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