Law and Lyric
Poems that illuminate the blessings and burdens of an imperfect legal system, foster care system, and the realities of family law in Georgia
10.09.2017
6.14.2017
Honoring Resilience
See me
I'm not the girl my father abandoned
Not the child he laid his hands on
I’m not that kid in DFCS custody
I am not the drugs that my mother gave me
I’m not the drunk who whipped my still wobbly legs purple
Or that cocaine addicted newborn facing insurmountable hurdles
I’m not that toddler trembling in Me Maw’s closet
Or the child missing from family composites
I’m not that angry delinquent running scared and tired
Or that poor girl you declined to hire
I’m neither strife, nor pity
And reject your derision
I’m neither rage nor resentment
And don't want your contrition
I’m not a ward of the state ...Or an adjudication date
I'm not the filth in my home
Or my father’s complacent tone
I'm not my mother’s confinement
Or her lack of refinement
I will not be reduced to a label or cause
I will not be defined by dependency laws
I am facility unmeasured
And potential untapped
I will not lay in the corners of your predetermined map
I am not the portrait of premise or presupposition
I will act on my own petition!
Adversity’s frown will never steal my smile
I've walked for ages and lost count of the miles
My past will not pigeonhole my future
I will embrace my survival as success's tutor
My soul has the strength of a thousands seas
It will not be bound by myopic proclivity
I will never accept an expedient version of me
I'm not the girl my father abandoned
Not the child he laid his hands on
I’m not that kid in DFCS custody
I am not the drugs that my mother gave me
I’m not the drunk who whipped my still wobbly legs purple
Or that cocaine addicted newborn facing insurmountable hurdles
I’m not that toddler trembling in Me Maw’s closet
Or the child missing from family composites
I’m not that angry delinquent running scared and tired
Or that poor girl you declined to hire
I’m neither strife, nor pity
And reject your derision
I’m neither rage nor resentment
And don't want your contrition
I’m not a ward of the state ...Or an adjudication date
I'm not the filth in my home
Or my father’s complacent tone
I'm not my mother’s confinement
Or her lack of refinement
I will not be reduced to a label or cause
I will not be defined by dependency laws
I am facility unmeasured
And potential untapped
I will not lay in the corners of your predetermined map
I am not the portrait of premise or presupposition
I will act on my own petition!
Adversity’s frown will never steal my smile
I've walked for ages and lost count of the miles
My past will not pigeonhole my future
I will embrace my survival as success's tutor
My soul has the strength of a thousands seas
It will not be bound by myopic proclivity
I will never accept an expedient version of me
7.15.2014
Life's Disrobing
Your sadness like an anchor falls
It crashes 'round the
courthouse halls
Your legs mired; your eyes red
and pleading
You fear today’s your final
meeting
Back at home, the phone rings
with abandon
Your
pulse races; it moves in tandem
With
each whisper between them...and each denunciation
You
cry in woeful supplication
Your
daughter but a room away
Your son off to a friend’s to
play
“I’m leaving,” his father's
tone unsympathetic, callous
“Daddy,” he shouts, “you’re
supposed to love us!”
Your terror launched by life’s
disrobing
Will this be your complete
unfolding
This, his implausible but
palpable retreat
Your heart lumbered by love’s
defeat
His steps hasten down
desperation’s path
Is this midlife crisis’ wrath?
You want to scream for him to
hear
Don’t regret this time, this
day, this year
Don’t cause all that’s been
sweet to sour
Please, don’t let this be our
goodbye hour
Don’t leave me in this
tormented place
Unlock this cage of lost
embrace
Shed folly's shelter; and
wrongs amend
Treat me like your cherished
friend
By Rachel A. Elovitz, July 15, 2014
By Rachel A. Elovitz, July 15, 2014
6.12.2014
The Tug of Souls
Matrimonially extracted from Grace
Two souls' arms steadfast, embrace
Cloaked in comfort, foreheads converged,
Hands intertwined and traditions merged
United by covenant in Goodness’ presence
In the shadow of doubt and piercing reticence
Promises pledged, alas unrequited
Lies greedily tendered, trust now subsided
Faith dissolved in rile and segregation
In opposition hope shouts for remediation
Solace at last sought in legal jargon
Relief partial, hearts still hardened
Liberation gained in guided dissolution
In loss’ sting there is no absolution
Decisions armored, yet imprudently strategized
Love remembers what fate never realized
By Rachel Elovitz, Feb 2011
A Tale of Two Sisters
This offering was originally a response to my sister - after reading a poem she wrote about my nieces. It is an ode to them with a wish that what they share will permeate the walls of the Juvenile Court and the families who enter there.
Bereft
of slumber and of sluggish hand
On
your poetic tender my eyes humbly land
To
read a tale of two sisters, dissimilarly inclined
One
a whirling dervish, one bookishly sublime
Of
their doting alliance and its innate blisters
After
all…these two are sisters
In
each there is empathy, ability, and light
In
each there is humility, compassion, and insight
To
merit their love and yield their affection
Is
a testament to the recipient - absent dialogue, sans question
They
are the progeny of generations of goodness - and yes, fallibility
But
of history’s lessons they are the auspicious beneficiaries
And
should peace ever seem at one's insufferable distance
Her
sister will be there to mitigate resistance
No
doubt should lie in this final proffer
That
in their disparate manner, they are bonded forever
By Rachel Elovitz, Feb 2011
Wonderland Lost
There is no Cinderella
Peter
Pan is grown
That
doesn’t keep him sober
Nor
does it keep him home
Old
King Cole’s not so merry
His
wife’s the Wicked Witch
Red
Riding Hood seeks shelter
From
her wrath - and her switch
Wonderland
is a wasteland
The
Giving Tree a stump
Little
Bo Peep’s playground
Is
a needle-infested dump
Harold grabs
his purple crayon
And
draws Jonah’s whale
In
its belly he finds his haven
A
compulsory fairy-tale
By Rachel Elovitz, Feb 2011
6.09.2014
Truth's Lodging
For those grieving the loss of a marriage, the end of a cherished relationship, and the absence of answers
Forego ardent protest and creative
supplication
Relying on inference - a fool's condemnation
Discard diffidence, perception's jaded visor
Obscurity and darkness, veracity's quagmire
Truth's breath is transparent, impervious to contagion
Armored against malice and miscalculation
Empathy and insight born of its womb
In its embrace, deceit finds its tomb
To pursue its lodging, a futile expedition
Mourning its absence, gratuitous self-sedition
In the breast of its seeker – therein ends the quest
Its province ubiquitous; its form manifest
Originally printed on Waxing Lyrical on February 5, 2011
This Second
An Ode to Legal Guardians and Adoptive Parents
Her dance is mercifully blissful
Her laughter, heaven’s cackle
A sparse apartment for seven
Her enchanted, cherubim castle
Of her father’s crime she’s clueless
She knows not her Mother’s love - or slaughter
The voices she hears each morning
Say that she’s her Aunt and Uncle’s daughter
Her brother tenderly takes her hand
As he opens a Courtroom door
He remembers all too well
The life they had before
His manner is always courteous
His speech, a rejection of his sorrow
For him the journey begins this second
Not yesterday, not tomorrow
From the bench a ruling
Formality these children cannot comprehend
They sit quietly at a table
Mom and Dad at either end
That their parents did not give them birth
Merits zero contemplation
That they are loved and nurtured
Is their soul consideration
By Rachel Elovitz
Originally printed on February 10, 2011, on Waxing Lyrical at http://rachelaelovitz.blogspot.com/
Originally printed on February 10, 2011, on Waxing Lyrical at http://rachelaelovitz.blogspot.com/
6.05.2014
Judgment's Lobby (aka Heaven Imagined)
Yonder bail and creed
Mislaid derision; cutting mockery
Gone judicial indecision
Marital mayhem and cacophony
Trespass tarries onward
Cool malfeasance finds oblivion
Through love's breath, liberal and transparent
Iniquity eagerly wakes contrition
Life's disquiets no longer hobby
Sagacity soars in judgment's lobby
libels unearthed; truth shedding mystery
In this real nocturnal reverie
By Rachel A. Elovitz
June 5, 2014
Application for Amnesty
My train extends a thousand miles
Every boxcar crammed with cargo
Chronicles sealed in steel
I’m carrying 4000 tons
I want desperately to bring this freight to a halt
To get off this monorail
To unbolt the caboose door
Dash down the stairs
And amble up the open tracks
Savoring whatever time I’ve left of this singular journey
Leaving behind the weight of things
The reels of acid that daily revisit
Dissolving my insides
Extinguishing judgment
Pain as pointless as it is poignant
Consuming all that could be
Atonement for naught
Should my sins repeat
Injuring the brakemen, flagmen, ticket collectors - all
Every part of me tarnished and tired
And moving 70 miles an hour
But I can open the brake pipe
Slow this train
Bring it to a stop
Walk off
And wave goodbye
An application for amnesty
Before I march forward
My compass northbound
Toward a raging tsunami
It pours over and through me
Carrying away grime and folly
I gaze over my right shoulder
The train is dazzling in the sun, a radiant red
Its materials are unencumbered
Pages without pain
The train and its cargo vanish inside me
Its ride was mine
But not me
Every boxcar crammed with cargo
Chronicles sealed in steel
I’m carrying 4000 tons
I want desperately to bring this freight to a halt
To get off this monorail
To unbolt the caboose door
Dash down the stairs
And amble up the open tracks
Savoring whatever time I’ve left of this singular journey
Leaving behind the weight of things
The reels of acid that daily revisit
Dissolving my insides
Extinguishing judgment
Pain as pointless as it is poignant
Consuming all that could be
Atonement for naught
Should my sins repeat
Injuring the brakemen, flagmen, ticket collectors - all
Every part of me tarnished and tired
And moving 70 miles an hour
But I can open the brake pipe
Slow this train
Bring it to a stop
Walk off
And wave goodbye
An application for amnesty
Before I march forward
My compass northbound
Toward a raging tsunami
It pours over and through me
Carrying away grime and folly
I gaze over my right shoulder
The train is dazzling in the sun, a radiant red
Its materials are unencumbered
Pages without pain
The train and its cargo vanish inside me
Its ride was mine
But not me
Not anymore
By Rachel A. Elovitz
Originally printed as "Northbound" on Waxing Lyrical at rachelaelovitz.blogspot.com on February 15, 2011
Accord and Satisfaction
She was stationed
at the head
of a sprawling table
of a sprawling table
Clad in impartiality
surrounded by 6 empty chairs
“They’ve mostly arrived,” the Coordinator tells her
Conciliation and empathy were no shows
Resentment and repudiation came early
They marched into the room,
their steps archetypically discordant
She listened, as barristers bloviated
and parties postured
She heard - enmity’s voice
and antipathy’s quiet rage
She watched, the parties’ unsteady hands
and unmanageable tears
She asked about interests, rather than positions
She probed for common ground – and found it
In the face of an absent child
The discussion turned to him
To his education, his welfare, his access to two parents
Areas of solidarity unearthed – and manifold
She listened, as rigidity crumbled
and tensions thawed
She heard, the plunge of positions
and good will’s eruption
And she marveled, as clenched hands released,
faces brightened,
and a collaborative future was forged
First published on Waxing Lyrical at rachelaelovitz.blogspot.com/ on March 31, 2011
surrounded by 6 empty chairs
“They’ve mostly arrived,” the Coordinator tells her
Conciliation and empathy were no shows
Resentment and repudiation came early
They marched into the room,
their steps archetypically discordant
She listened, as barristers bloviated
and parties postured
She heard - enmity’s voice
and antipathy’s quiet rage
She watched, the parties’ unsteady hands
and unmanageable tears
She asked about interests, rather than positions
She probed for common ground – and found it
In the face of an absent child
The discussion turned to him
To his education, his welfare, his access to two parents
Areas of solidarity unearthed – and manifold
She listened, as rigidity crumbled
and tensions thawed
She heard, the plunge of positions
and good will’s eruption
And she marveled, as clenched hands released,
faces brightened,
and a collaborative future was forged
First published on Waxing Lyrical at rachelaelovitz.blogspot.com/ on March 31, 2011
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ODE TO AN INSUFFERABLE ADVOCATE
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What are you able to build with your lies Integrity crumbles; trust withers and dies Your boasts of endowment and feat Beg Karma’...
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See me I'm not the girl my father abandoned Not the child he laid his hands on I’m not that kid in DFCS custody I am not the drugs t...