From Children of Air India by Renée Sarojini Saklikar, published by Nightwood Editions in 2013. Her work has appeared in the Georgia Straight, Vancouver Review, SubTerrain and other periodicals, and in several anthologies. She lives in Vancouver. For more on Saklikar and her work, visit thecanadaproject.wordpress.com. 

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ELEGY FOR COURTROOM 20, VANCOUVER LAW COURTS

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Search gate outside the courtroom.

Citizens security-screened.

Lexan glass to separate

the body of the court—

public gallery

149 seats and video monitors

three locations, allowing for unobstructed views.

Everyone watches the proceedings.

A judges’ bench accommodates hearings.

23 seats for prosecution and defence counsel,

in the body of the court.

Space for 15 lawyers if required.

A witness box, a jury box, both wheelchair accessible.

State-of-the-art technology for use by all courtroom participants.

28 microphones for all participants:

lawyers, judges, witnesses, translators.

384 service outlets—voice, data, audio, video.

3 forty-inch Plasma Display Monitors.

2 thirty-six-inch TV monitors.

4 voice-activated video cameras transmit proceedings:

viewing locations outside the courtroom.

           — Government of British Columbia, Court Services, 2003

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The room underground: wood panel, red carpet, benches and glass.

The judge a pinprick head,

far away, behind layers of Lexan

resinous thermoplastic

right-angled to the players in the main action—

a drama that was about [redacted] and not about 

[redacted], family

reflected, refracted, our airplane saga.

           —N, eyewitness account, March 16, 2005

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EXHIBIT: AGE UNKNOWN.

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How he paws at her and she’s tiring of him, wants 

to scold,

teeth glinting behind a full upper lip,

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stop, stop: he’s on the verge of crying—howling—

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she looks into her child’s eyes, and sees past image

to another (the man with whom she made this 

crying-thing,

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don’t cry, don’t), she sees deeper into the night

this child conceived

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a slow seed’s insistence—

how can she be so sure. She is. Mother, her child,

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whimpering now under her stare,

cornflower blue saree gathering his body—

and over it, a beige sweater, arms around—

overalls by OshKosh.

These details, this morning, decided.

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Status: Mother’s body found. Child missing.

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