h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Social Services?? - A4051946
Author: spiderbaby - Alter ego - Queen Rasiera, wife of King Aladine, now banished to the wastelands of Breeg for her wickedness. - U247838

A poem for anyone who has ever had to deal with Social Services.

spidey

Ooooo, that has bite! It's good. A poetic rant .

I really like the 'chorus' bit, the change in pace there adding variety. 'lists and lists', is neat. That whole verse will stick in mind.

Oddly, the one thing I'm wasn't quite sure about was it's repitition. I felt it lost a slight bit of edge to end on a repeat and on 'familial burdon shouldered' which is hard to read with edge. But that's just me and is being picky.

Thanks spidey,
Waz

Cheers Waz. The repetition was intended to show how dealing with constant harrassment by these people can wear you down.

A couple of people in social work actually picked this up and asked if it they could copy it and take it to work!

spidey

Ouch!

That's a somehow distressingly, depressingly familiar bite, indeed!

At the risk of sounding just completely masochistic, I was actually hoping for one more pair of verses, both to sink the bite a bit deeper and really play the repetition of the four-line bit to full effect.

(One wee nit note: burdon = burden?)

I'm off to lick my wounds.

m

Is that masochistic or cheek?

I was going to say one more verse, to have the repeated chorus but not end on it, but decided that was cheeky.

That someone in social work wanted a copy for work must be so satisfying, spidey. A message made and taken, sort of.
Waz

My daughter is involved in a child protection case. We are all 100 per cent behind her and think the premise for bringing the case is unjust to say the least.

(it has been called a gross miscarriage by a legal representative)

My husband is also involved with in cases from the other side in his job so we have quite a bit of knowledge as to how they work.

I downloaded a 38 page document from the internet on Kent sodial services own guidelines for child protection committees and it was in my daughter's house when the social worker came round. She asked my daughter where she got the file and told her she was not supposed to have it!!!!!!!

My daughter answered that it is in the public domain on the net.

As far as we can see they have been breaking their own guidelines in this case.

They have picked on the wrong family here!!!!!!!!

spidey