My mother was a veiled woman
Invisible that night

decades later she tells me
she was downstairs
that night
he went to her first

disabled her
dispatched her

as if breaking a lamp
smashing the bulb
tearing the shade into pieces

I’d never asked
why did it never occur to me
to ask?

She offers this
as a confession
as if she’d sinned
      it’s not your fault, I say
she shakes her head,
she can’t agree
      what could you have done?

Something.