A Juror Must Fold In On Herself

Kathleen McClung

Courtrooms hum with drama. But aside from “Twelve Angry Men” and occasional feminist re-imaginings with all-women casts, jurors are seldom the central characters in literature or film. A Juror Must Fold in on Herself tips the scale. Kathleen McClung’s incisive poems focus on a juror as she performs the unglamorous civic duty of listening, concentrating, and discerning in a lengthy trial. Through a variety of poetic forms—sonnets, villanelles, sestinas and others—McClung illuminates the interior world of a juror abiding by the rules of an imperfect legal system and balancing head and heart within the tight confines of a solemn hall of justice. Listen closely to McClung’s poems and you, too, will hear a hum.