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# If I Lay Down
- URL: https://www.vesperapress.com/if-i-lay-down/
- Published: 2020-09-27T22:22:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-12T22:47:56.000Z
- Description: A poetic response
- Author: Meredith "Meri" McGuire McConn
- Tags: Oceans of Mine, UNmistIFIED, #Poetry, #Reflections, #13, #Domestic Violence, #Making Sense of It

If I lay down my life of pain,  
who is going to fight the fight  
when I can’t stand to see, again,  
another woman stunned in fright,  
  
another misogynistic reign?  
Who will stand guard through the night  
against the chilling dreams that stain  
my memory, insistent sight?

Who will carry on, this time?  
Who will educate the world  
of all that strips the sweet, sublime —  
if I slip into sails, unfurled?

Don’t you think I wish to go  
away, across the wide, blue sea?  
Don’t you think I wish to know  
of only peace; of only me?

The world’s not kind to us, and so,  
I’ll find a way to live; and be  
a woman who can yet bestow  
my truths — and make a life, carefree.