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Lithium Witness
by Nina Bannett
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Excerpts
War Stories
Surrounded
my mother and I are flanked on all sides.
This waiting is a serious business,
these trenches,
this series of stiff chairs and couches
have been placed here by our enemies,
our dentist and his secretary.
Suspended in space,
I am waiting for time to begin and end.
Outside, as we prepare to surrender,
the red brick houses
stand at attention.
What are they thinking?
Right and left: my police car, her ambulance.
Undefeated, my mother screams my name many times.
She will not be vanquished in her psychosis—
convinced that the hospital would be the best place for me, too.
Shattered, I sit in the front seat,
squashed into the squad car radio,
huddled against what I have witnessed.
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