JUAN

I try everything I can think of

    begging

    pleading

    even a formal request to the magistrate

    written documents

    petitioning my transfer

    to a new master

She warns me to stop trying to talk

    to the priest and the courts

Have I ever harmed you? she asks

    in front of witnesses,

    so I’ll know

    what I’m expected to say

    and to do

How dare you remember your mother, she says

    I am your mother

    this is your home

So once again I pretend

    that love and nature

    and logic

    have all been replaced

    by this nightmare

    a vision

    strange life

    lost in dreams

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