Credit: harrisonstainlesssteelrat

One of the pathways to crime and eventual incarceration for women includes growing up in a family that has been impoverished for generations.

It’s not surprising that as the woman’s teen years approach, she experiences a deep desire to leave this environment, particularly if it has been chaotic or dysfunctional.

Then as so many ‘inside’ women write about, along comes “baby” a short time later, providing a great blessing to her, but also a supreme financial burden for a young mother with an incomplete education, undeveloped job skills, and a fractured family system.

Here’s a piece scribed by CS this week that details this pattern:

In nine months my adult self would be born…

When born, you cannot determine
how you will be raised.
For me, it was within a carnival scene,
so alive and adventurous,
it would leave you amazed.

I had to grow up fast till the age of 16.
I left my home a long time ago,
tears running down my face as I ran out the door,
and all I wanted was for you to follow me,
‘cause without you felt so empty.

Brought up by a man of alcoholism and abuse,
he brought me down so far,
I thought, “what’s the use?”
So I thought if I could change, I would.
I searched in all the wrong places,
at parties and bars, and all the wrong faces. 

I met a man at the age of 18
just like my father, very mean.
We made love at such a young age,
that in exactly nine months
my adult self would be born.

When I found out I was in my first trimester stage,
then we got married, written down and sworn.
I never got to be a child myself,
but as a child I was bearing another child.
So I put these toys upon a shelf
though they are not for me – isn’t this wild?

Now at 31, I am still married
with a beautiful daughter and handsome son.
And yes, I am still married, but I am not buried.
So I set out on this new journey of life.