Milk
Let’s workshop this poem about the complexities of reproductive rights, where the legality of women terminating pregnancies is juxtaposed against the illegality of men refusing to pay child support
Milk If women can legally kill a fetus—murder, but not necessarily wrong: all cultures grant exceptions (as in when Innuits dump surplus mouths on ice drifts) and fetuses (unlike cows we daily torture) feel no pain—why are men unable to opt out of child support?
This poem, "Milk," explores the contentious and often contradictory terrain of reproductive rights, legal responsibilities, and societal ethics. By juxtaposing the legal permissibility of abortion with the absence of a corresponding right for men to opt out of child support, the poem highlights the gendered asymmetries in how society allocates reproductive responsibility. The rhetorical question posed at the poem's climax—why men cannot opt out of child support—invites a critical examination of the ways in which legal systems enforce paternal obligations, even as they grant women significant autonomy over reproductive decisions.
The reference to Innuits leaving "surplus mouths on ice drifts" serves to underscore what might seem is cultural relativism but is kot: every society makes murder a taboo. The difference lies in what situations murder is considered acceptable. The murder taboo is universal but the exceptions might vary given historical, environmental, and cultural factors. By evoking a practice that is morally anathema in many contemporary societies, the poem compels us to confront the often uncomfortable reality that our own moral judgments are similarly contingent and context-dependent.
The poem also makes a stark comparison between the legal rights afforded to a fetus and the everyday cruelty inflicted on animals, specifically cows. This contrast not only points to societal hypocrisies but also raises questions about the selective nature of empathy and moral concern. It makes more sense to kill the bothersome fetus, which "feels no pain," than to kill a cow. We kill cows. So perhaps fetus murder is the sort of tolerable murder we see in the ice-float example.
In its brevity, "Milk" distills complex legal, ethical, and philosophical debates into a series of sharp juxtapositions, provoking reflection on the intersections of gender, power, and morality. The poem does not offer easy answers but instead urges the reader to grapple with the paradoxes and inequalities that characterize contemporary discussions of reproductive rights and responsibilities.
reproductive rights, legal responsibilities, gender asymmetry, cultural relativism, societal ethics, moral inconsistency, autonomy, paternal obligations, animal rights, contemporary poetry.