She called me
from this downtown parking lot
Help me
Confusion floods her words.
Where’s my family?
What’s going on?
Confusion floods my mind.
Where is my mother?
This is not my mother.
 
Lights flashing
Red and blue
Sirens wailing
Where’s my mother?
She’s talking out of her head
Help her
She’s yelling and screaming and
Fighting
The straps on that
gurney that
Tell her fate
Help her
 
Ambulances, hospitals, tranquilizers
Insane asylums
Where’s my mother?
Is that my mother?
She’s dreaming now
Of better places
Than this iron cage
Keeping her
Separated from
Her daughter.
 
Under 18?
No visitation
5 minute phone calls
She calls
Is this my mother?
Stuck
In this prison they call “help.”
God, help her, help her, help her.