Baby Killer

Taken from the headlines over 70 years ago, this poem reflects the perennial issues associated with the life cycle of the impoverished. As the abortion debate continues unabated let us remember the fate that once befell those most vulnerable amongst us beset with an unwanted pregnancy. The scenario depicted in this poem could once again become stark reality if our modern misogynists have their way.

Baby Killer
-- Eugene V. Etler

They take a girl and put her on trial
For the killing of a baby she did not want.

They take her before a judge and twelve true men
And seat her before the eyes of the staring mob.
And they point their fingers with the scorn of the right
And they say with their eyes – You killed your baby.
Your one hour baby
You killed your baby
And then they question – Why?

And this girl she sits and looks at them
And wonders, too, at the reasons why
She had a baby and though she did
Whose business is it but her own
That she killed it before it had a chance
Of growing and discovery the hardships
One has to go thru living.

They take a girl and put her on trial
For the killing of a baby she did not want.

Why? cries the court
You killed, cries the court
You took a life, cries the court
You must pay with your life, cries the court
With your life! With your life! With your life!
cries the court!

Why did you kill, cries the court
cries the press
cries the mob
cries a land
cries a world
cries a girl
Why did I kill
Why did I kill a baby that I did not want?

It was born, she sobs, without any help.
I felt a pain, a terrible pain, I couldn’t breathe,
I couldn’t talk, I couldn’t walk,
I felt as if I was going to die.
You’re going to have a kid, I cried.
You’re going to have a kid, I screamed.
You don’t want anyone to know, I yelled.
So I went to the bathroom and there my baby
There my baby was born to me
Born to me and I looked at it and cried
I cried, what are you doing here
Who asked for you
And what am I going to do
Am I going to do with you?
And I talked and cried to it –
And I looked at its face, its ugly face,
And I sobbed when I saw its face
I sobbed and I said, you don’t belong,
And I felt very weak and needed some air –
So grasping my baby I went upstairs
Up five flights of stairs
Till I came to the roof
And I looked down below
And I feeling so weak
I fainted!
I didn’t kill my baby!
I didn’t want it,
But, I did not kill it –
I fainted!
I fainted!
You hear, I did not kill it!
I fainted and it fell those five stories high
And its just as well it did die,
But I did not kill it!
I didn’t! I didn’t! I didn’t!

And the district Attorney, he, looks at this girl
This girl that they put on trial
For killing a baby she did not want.
And this District Attorney so wise in the ways of the law
This District Attorney who knows right from wrong
Looks at this girl and questions so wisely:

You did not kill your baby?
No, cries the girl and in her innocence means –
No, she did not want it; but she did not kill it.
Ah, cries the District Attorney and he shouts his point.
And cries for the world to hear -----
No, you did not want it – so you went to the roof
And threw it down and watched it hit the pavement
You killed a baby because you did not want it!

Sane, logical District Attorney --- summing his case
To the logical point
Of a law maker
Who would send a law breaker
To jail
Or his doom in the chair
Logical, sane, maker and holder of the law District Attorney.

They take a girl and put her on trial
For the killing of a baby she did not want.

And the jury is wise
And the judge is wise
And the people is wise
The world is wise
And they condemn this girl
For her innocence in having a baby
And killing a baby
An hour old baby
A thing that did not know what it is to live.

Who is this girl?
What is this girl?
She epitomizes a world of girls
Caught in the clutches
Of a world that does not give a hooting damn
If they exist or don’t exist.

Her name is Mary Smith.
Take the stand Mary Smith.
What is your name Mary Smith?
Mary Smith ---
Ah, Mary Smith ---
How old are you, Mary Smith?
Seventeen!
Are you married, Mary Smith?
No!
Ah, she’s not married
And Mary Smith had a baby
An unwanted baby
A baby she killed!
You killed your baby, Mary Smith!
No!

Now, Mary Smith, I want to ask you a question ---
You know the father of your dead baby --- Mary Smith?
Yes!
Ah, you know the father of your dead baby --- Mary Smith.
Yes.
And who is the father?
And Mary Smith tells her story.

Listen, you jury
Listen, you court
Listen, you people
Listen, you world
You so wise who condemn this girl
For killing a baby she did not want.

A story of a girl who at the age of thirteen
Had to leave school and go to work
And the money she earned
Was not the money she earned
For this money had to go to her folks.

Innocent child of thirteen
Working and slaving under the tutorage
Of a boss, a foreman and a machine.
Turning out work and receiving for her work
A salary measly
Which she in return brings home to the folks..

Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen – working in a factory.
Where are the pleasures that a girl needs?
Where are those things that a girl needs?
Clothes, cosmetics, friends and boys
Dates and pleasures of parties that a girl needs and wants.
Where are those things for a girl that works
Works all day and from the work she does
Receives in reality no pay at all.

Seventeen, attractive
Seventeen, a woman
Seventeen, feeling the urge of a woman
Seventeen, take away thirteen
Four years working
Four years slaving
Four years in a world
For an unmatured girl
Who should have been cloistered
Within the four walls of a school.

No security
Thus no ordinary pleasures
Meeting a fellow
An attractive fellow
A good time fellow
Who looks at a girl
And thinks of a mattress.

There is no harm!
We live but once!
There is no harm!
There is no harm!
There is no harm!

A kiss!
Bliss!
Biting of lips!
Body entwined into body
No ordinary pleasures
Extraordinary pleasures
With a fellow
Who thinks of a girl
As a mattress.

Mary Smith --- Seventeen
Four years in the world
Should know the ways of protection;
But Mary Smith who at the age of seventeen
If so inclined
Should have had the privilege
Of being secure
Of having an education
Of not being thrown
At the mercies
Of an uncompromising world.

Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen
Not knowing what it is to live
Oh, sensuous pleasures
Oh, world, oh, life
To create such a function
For we live but once
We live but once!
We live but once!

And Mary Smith wants to live
Mary Smith has discovered a new meaning for living
Mary Smith forced by a world into a new found ideology
For her existence.

We live but once ---
Live twice Mary Smith
Live thrice, Mary Smith.

And then -------

No! No! No!

You must marry me!
God, can’t you see
I’m going to have a baby!
Why didn’t you tell me
That this would happen to me!

And then ----------

No! No! No!

I didn’t know ---
How was I to know
That you have a wife
God, what’s going to happen to my life?

Mary Smith, stand up.
Face the jury, Mary Smith.
Mary Smith you are found guilty
For murder in the second degree.

Twelve wise men have spoken
So ----- Mary Smith ----- guilty -----
You condemn this girl!

Ah, stupid jury
Stupid judge
Stupid people
Stupid world
You can’t condemn Mary Smith!
You can’t condemn Mary Smith!
For in condemning Mary Smith
You condemn yourselves
For allowing all Mary Smiths
To start their lives
Their young innocent lives
At the age of adolescence
To work! To work! To work!

These are children who are humans
These are children who you call the future generation
The makers of our nation -----
So you take them from schools
And you place them to work.
You demoralize their minds
You shatter their lives
You wreck their bodies
You lead them astray
And then you condemn them
For something to which you led them.

Condemn Mary Smith
No! Condemn yourselves
For that’s what you do
When you condemn Mary Smith.

Mary Smith --- that girl you put on trial
For the killing of a baby she did not want.