Bound by Confidentiality

The children's aid abducted us from our friends and families,
Using chainsaws of authority they cut down our family trees.
Once you're stuck in foster care, you wind up living god knows where,
Shipped around like a piece of mail, till sixteen years when you can bail.

To our natural families you're not allowed to speak --
Group home staff are too afraid us little rats will squeak.
They make our file summaries in attempts to satisfy,
But cut out all the crap they did and leave us with a lie.

They keep our lives a secret from the public and the press,
So nobody can witness this manufactured mess.
They say our files are secret so they can protect us,
But in reality its is so they can repress us.

Bound by confidentiality what a lovely phrase,
Highly sanctioned child abuse for over forty eight thousand days.
The longer they procrastinate in giving us our lives,
The bigger and more fortified become the crown-ward hives.

Poem by by John Dunn.