On The Sentencing Of Andrea Yates Poem by Lillian Beckett

I read about a woman,
the papers called a modern day Medea.
Why, I wondered
Would I feel any sympathy for a woman
Who drowned her five children,
Then laid them neatly
In a row in their beds...
But- I do.
I feel her heart break
Everytime she thinks,
"I am ruining them;
I don't deserve them.
I am a terrible mother.
I will send them back to God."
She is no modern day Medea,
Seeking vengence
Against an unfaithful lover.
She is a modern day woman,
Pressured to be perfect.
Undervalued, understaffed
And only in her sorrow understood.
Pitiful and pitied.