End of a Right to Life Demonstration

They have bused in school kids to demonstrate
on this most adult of issues; the protesters mill
around Capitol Hill jacketed in forest green.

My cab's at a standstill amid the thrumming fumes
of marchers' buses; cops reroute frustrated
drivers; we ease toward Union Station.

I find marchers massed; a gaggle of nuns;
demonstrators wield signs showing a fetus
in crown of thorns, saying "Father forgive them."

A Life magazine moment: placards sprout
like a forest from a trash bin; a maintenance man
tears off the signs from staves, empties the bin.

Christopher T. George