the old bailey

The visitors gallery is entered via a white tiled passage.
After primitive security, they are herded like schoolkids
On the stairwell, waiting for permission to enter. The court
Rises for the judge. Yellow masking tape covers a bank of
Seats. In the gallery, a row is cordoned off by police tape,
As though a crime had been committed. The jury’s a scruffy
Multi racial mix. In for the long haul. Bewigged courtiers tap at
Laptops. Four members of the police defence council scrutinise
The gallery, copper genes kicking in. Unaccounted guests
Include a Brazilian, some students and a young man in a brash
Captain America T-shirt. The barristers know their Dickens.
For the police, a heronian brief, beaky, boxing clever.
His adversary appears as twitchy as a sparrow, then proceeds
To cross-examine like a mongoose, circling, darting, retreating.
She sips from her water, refills the glass from a jug, hovers, moves
On, quips with deadpan wit, runs her witness ragged. Implies a kill
She has no need to make. The witnesses are upstanding police-
Men, steeped in caution. The judge queries one officer. Surely, he
Suggests, were a suicide bomber known to be at large, would that
That not indeed represent an immediate, actionable threat
To the safety of the public? - Indeed it would. So – why was
Jean Charles de Menenzes allowed to board the bus unchallenged? Why
The four hour wait for a briefing? What really caused a man’s death, in
The darkness of the underground, on a Summer’s Day at Stockwell Tube?

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