She states the truth of her situation simply, as if she were an observer. This address creates distance between the speaker and herself at the beginning of the poem, allowing her a somewhat more objective way into the difficult topic at hand. The use of the second-person pronoun “you” throughout the first stanza creates an imagined dialogue between the speaker and herself. The paradox of having and not-having these children is introduced in the second line: “You remember the children you got that you did not get” (Line 2). The shape of the poem follows the stream of consciousness of a would-be mother attempting to make sense of the emotional fallout of several abortions. “the mother” is a deeply introspective poem driven by the speaker’s internal reckoning.
