Caretakers

adapted from

At State-Run Homes, Abuse and Impunity

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/nyregion/13homes.html?pagewanted=6&ref=homepage&src=me

Definition of BEDLAM 

1. obsolete: madman; lunatic 

2.  often capitalized : a lunatic asylum

3: a place, scene, or state of uproar and confusion

Bedlam, popular name for the Hospital of St. Mary of Bethlehem, London, an insane asylum 

I.

Supervisor Rickie Sousie

Jeans at his ankles

Stands between her legs

Strong hand on her knee

Her diaper yanked down

II.

This poem, a stubborn sickness, demands its own recording

I prefer not consider a retardation so severe

She is unable to scream,

as in your worst dreams

But she is wide awake

Reliant on her ‘caretaker’

III. 

Sousie transfers from one group home to another

Until finally, he is jailed briefly

Recently released, he looks forward to state pension

IV.

Reminiscent of England's Bedlam

In the Sixteenth Century

Patients, manacled to floorboards and walls,
Earned pennies from nobility amused by the antics of the ‘mentally damaged’

V. 

Five hundred years pass

Still countless prey on the voiceless

VI.

I would prefer to notice the rising sun

as it bathes my kitchen in buttery light

But I must say their names, must reveal them

                                                                                

VII.  Henry Marrero

Slapped a  ninety-nine year old man

Hit his withered cheek

Punched his shrunken stomach

Forced his compliance.
Marrero still serves

VIII.

Michelle Penharlow

Brandished a knife at a disabled woman

Laughed as blade stabbed air

While the woman collapsed in the dust

IX. Charles Weima

when not slapping or sleeping

told his charge

”Why don’t you get a Brillo pad, scrape that black right off of you?”

X.
They touch lovers with tainted hands

Comfort children with twisted tongues

How can they bare their own presence?

                                                            

XI.

What touched them in the deep of night?

A small boy or girl, cowering in the corner

What twisted branch broke them?

XII.

13,000 allegations

private heartaches filed in dimly lit offices

Only 5% reported to police

So few see glaring light of official scrutiny

Who will watch the watchers?

XIII.

New York in 2011

How far have we journeyed from Bedlam?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethlem_Royal_Hospital
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bedlam