Today I am concerned about
What happens when you go to court
How we get dehumanized
In the fairness of justice
How is it when heard
That a grown woman
Fears the very presence of her father
What thought goes through the mind of jury
That this decrepit man should face charges
That stemmed from long ago
How is this on the grand scale of things
She who is I, still say daddy for God sakes
What is to be believed in stories never told
How he did to so many and none spoke
There is shared disclosure
Making one wonder who is the victim
I just never knew at 45 I would be here
Daughter to a man that felt entitled
No mind bending chemicals in system
What do you ask or say to questions never uttered
That accountability was lost
Your honor you do not understand
The risk to suicide if I stand here
I try not to punish myself anymore
My life deserves liberty from this
I worry about my mind and how incline I am to make a mistake
Feel a mistake without it ever coming to bear fruit
I just want to be someone else who has unbridled thoughts
Will my father get 7 years for coming to my door
My sentence was life and there was no evidence of a crime
Except how my mind recoils into tortured spaces
I am not really concerned about it
Except for the new familial enemies I gain
I just wonder if any understood
30 years later is a hard place to stand
For a story no one wants to remember
In a court too overloaded
Patrice C. Queen 12/10/05
What happens when you go to court
How we get dehumanized
In the fairness of justice
How is it when heard
That a grown woman
Fears the very presence of her father
What thought goes through the mind of jury
That this decrepit man should face charges
That stemmed from long ago
How is this on the grand scale of things
She who is I, still say daddy for God sakes
What is to be believed in stories never told
How he did to so many and none spoke
There is shared disclosure
Making one wonder who is the victim
I just never knew at 45 I would be here
Daughter to a man that felt entitled
No mind bending chemicals in system
What do you ask or say to questions never uttered
That accountability was lost
Your honor you do not understand
The risk to suicide if I stand here
I try not to punish myself anymore
My life deserves liberty from this
I worry about my mind and how incline I am to make a mistake
Feel a mistake without it ever coming to bear fruit
I just want to be someone else who has unbridled thoughts
Will my father get 7 years for coming to my door
My sentence was life and there was no evidence of a crime
Except how my mind recoils into tortured spaces
I am not really concerned about it
Except for the new familial enemies I gain
I just wonder if any understood
30 years later is a hard place to stand
For a story no one wants to remember
In a court too overloaded
Patrice C. Queen 12/10/05