You call me 

When something 

Needs fixing 

Needs mending 

When the kids 

The kids are not alright 

The social workers 

The Doctors 

The nurses 

The department of education 

The police 

They’ve got me 

On speed dial

Emergency contact number one 

Im in the thick of it 

And you’re in a chair 

Checked out 

And hes been missing for years 

So 

here 

I 

Am 

Because these kids 

They need 

Just, One, Single, Person.

To advocate for them 

Like a parent should 

Dutifully 

I take them on

Even if it means I have to take you on

And you waged a war 

against these kids best interests for 19 years 

And I guess 

You, Just, Won.

Because 

I have surrendered 

I have done everything I could do for them out here 

But this isn’t my land

This isn’t my territory 

These aren’t my children

But I have patched 

Bolstered 

Repaired 

Restored 

And mended 

These broken little people 

Over 

and over again 

And I thought

That one day 

They’d be ok

That I would make them 

ok 

That one day

They would be old enough 

Or far enough away from you 

For them to be ok

I think I thought 

That I was important 

That I mattered 

That what I did mattered 

That sometimes I got to be their hero 

That sometimes being their hero 

Also meant being their villain 

Because what’s good for them in the long term

Might hurt them in the short term 

But these children 

Were standing there

On the stage of life

Reading their part 

To an empty theatre 

An absent father never calls back 

A mother off in another room taking the main stage 

But I was watching 

So I read the part

I read the Father Part 

I read the Mother Part 

I got the good cop & the bad cop 

I read the sister part in my same voice

because I couldn’t keep up 

And its like 

When the curtain lifted 

And you were ready to go

As the audience took their seats 

I looked down 

At my overalls 

My mop and bucket 

And then it dawns on me

As if ive just woken from a dream 

Im just the janitor 

You’ve all been practing with 

Because this is my real life

I am the cleaner 

But you are taking up the parts of your life 

And Im just on call 

Not in the role of 

Sister 

Daughter 

Friend 

But 

Trauma Cleaner