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Jury Service

The process may be public but his law

Is private to the point of secrecy.

How many cases are now in pursuit

Behind the sheltered anonymity

Of panelled rooms, the windowless repose

Where strangers try to grasp the ice-berg tip

Of truth which masses for beyond their sight

Waiting for a witness who might slip

And throw a hint to help them peer into

The murk that lies below the brief exchange

Twixt judge and counsel? How many folk like me

Squat on the jury benches while the range

          Of lumpen human sorrow passes by

          Which could so easily be you or I?

Dr Brian Hick summer 2011

©copyright Sally Hick 4.3.23