The System Will Live On

By Zara Gudnason
Copyright

I watched the babe in arms
through the tv screen
on the wall of the courtroom


He twitched and shook
and shuddered
The witness was asked
Is this one of
the seizures he had
when you cared for him
before his death


Grief fell from the
nurse, as we watched
the courtrooms babe
Baby Bjay convulsing
in his final days


Five years on and
an SC talks down
the phone to me
That case was a tragedy
The whole system
is a
Human
Rights
Abuse


This island state
that creates a system
that crushes psyches
that kills babies
that tears babes from arms


Why aren’t we
in the streets
protesting against
The broken system
The redesign
The lack of funding
of representation
The sweep it under the rug they’re
just poor people
attitude


We are still, while
the government tells our
Overworked
Underpaid
Undertrained
staff that
There are no more
resources, it’s about
working
smarter.


Our courtroom babe
will be 45 days old
forever
He will always die
of fractured femurs
and ribs
and a head injury
inflicted by his father


He will fall through 70
down
down
down
in a system
that means well
but does wrong
forever


Please don’t let
them forget
the shaking baby
The system will live on

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