CIRCUMSION

CIRCUMCISION

When I queried my obstetrician
On how long circumcision had been around
In the USA
His reply was, Since the time of Moses!

I later learned the oldest record for circumcision
Comes from a royal Egyptian tomb
Dating to 2400 B.C.
Was this the time of Moses

When I inquired of nurse Marilyn Milos
Founder of NOCIRC, she replied
In this foreskin-phobic, sexually sick society
We want to market a normal penis

When I questioned Jerry Warner of Baton Rouge
His reply was even more emphatic
I'm an intact male! Nature knows best!
He said almost frantic

From Howard Sterns I got this exclamation:
On the subject of circumcision
It's barbarism and butchery
That was his final decision

From a legal point of view, lawyer David Llewellyn
The Johnnie Cochran of the Circumcised
Proclaimed circumcision is a two-billion dollar industry
New tactics have to be devised

The law against female genital mutilation
Denies equal protection for boys, he surmised
But countered Dr. Edgar Schoen, head of the 1989
Task Force on Circumcision, who being routine circumcised

States this is the best protection under the sun
With decreased amounts of urinary tract infections
HIV and penile cancer, this can be done
Do it for every son

Dr. James Roberts, Tulane professor emeritus of urology
Favored circumcision and was involved in the AAP 1989 policy reversal
Working at the Tulane Primate Center and using
Discarded foreskins from local hospitals, is this controversial

He determined that the same bacteria
Which causes kidney infections
Is the same that adheres to the foreskin
Remove the skin and remove the risk! –it has some defections

Going back in time, I read that Dr. Lewis Sayre
19th century president of the AMA
Claimed that circumcision could cure everything
From paralysis to sleeplessness in his day

Dr. Sayre proposed clitoridectomies for those
O, no, we women escaped a much worst fate
Nervous conditions of 19th century women
Let’s hope in the USA, we continue to escape it to this date

An extreme view was espoused by Dr. John Harvey Kellogg
As part of the 19th war on masturbation
He recommended circumcision without anesthesia
To combat the dreaded activity in this nation

Saying, The pain attending the operation
Will have a salutary effect upon the mind
Especially if connected with the idea of punishment
What an abomination

The ancient Greeks were astonished to learn
What the Jews were doing to their young boys
But for Jews and Muslims, too
They treat the ceremony with joy

Circumcision is a vital sign of identity
A covenant with their gods, Yahweh and Allah
A commandment which God gave to Abraham
They follow: Circumcise yourselves, every male among you

I asked Rabbi David Goldstein about circumcision
And he states that as a mitzvah, this incision
Is no issue, it's not a negation
Rather, it's an absolute and sacred obligation

In Christianity, Jesus, as a Jew
Was circumcised on the eighth day
Following his birth
That day is a feast day, for Christians on this earth

According to early Christian legends
Christ's foreskin was preserved
And handed down from pope to pope
It having great healing powers

The tribal marking of the American white middle class male today
Are we in America to be the only health-conscious country
Or are we sanctioning mass mutilation of our male population
This subject, this problem will not go away

Speaking as a woman who has had sex
With both kinds, circumcised and un
I can't tell the difference
Penises are penises and so much fun

2002