You say we failed you.  

We say: we followed procedure.



You wanted warmth.  

We offered shelter.

You wanted love.  

We offered supervised visits

Limits and such.



You wanted someone to listen.  

We logged your words.  

You wanted someone to stay.

We rotated homes, social workers etc.



You call us ghosts.  

We call ourselves efficient

You call us crying.

We call back. eventually

We didn’t forget you.

You were archived.  

You weren’t ignored.  

You were processed.



We didn’t break you.

You arrived fractured.  

We didn’t weld time to your skin.  

Time does that on its own.



We didn’t fail to care.

We were never designed to.

We mislead

We are the system.  



We don’t feel.  

We don’t flinch.  

We don’t cry.



We survive on silence,  

on signatures,  

on the ticking of clocks  

that don’t ask questions.



You want someone to blame.  

We’re easy.  

We’re faceless.  

Therefore blameless.



We’re built for it.



But we did what we were built to do.  

And we’re still doing it.

we always one