However Mother Feels Poem by James McLain

She is approaching eighty
the wooden bench in the courtroom
feels as if so many years ago in church.

When she had those four small children.
And in her mania the world truly was
a hyper womans oyster.
On this day not long ago
she listens to the court psychiatrist
tell the Judge
that this specific child
is bipolar and schizophrenic
and is unrestorible.

She testifies to the medication
and amounts taken
how many past hospitalizations.

She is not allowed to testify that this
specific individual
was raped
hundreds of times in state custody growing up.

The mother
has no true understanding of what is being said
as at her age
to have to admit to genetic predispositions.
And from where it came.
With no intention of knowing.
You can take the hillbillies
out of the sticks
but you can't take the sticks
out of the hillbillies.

Then her youngest
who she protects has been decade's
acquiring traffic infractions
and now is habitual.
Some where some thing terrible went wrong.
And this is the south
where you are asleep awake or not.