Justice is a Woman by Mia Scattergood (United Kingdom, 18)

​Justice is a woman.

Here is how you make her.
Soil her with gold body paint,
Fill her hand with a sword
Stand her above
So you can look underneath.
Tell her to be blind, and still.
An artefact.

Justice is a woman.

Make sure that when a girl stands at her feet.
Palms holding what is left.
And tells Justice of lip gloss
Sticky, smeared.
Of his twisted knife

​Unseen.
Make sure that Justice will raise her chin ever higher
And be silent.

Justice is a woman.

Know that because of what you made.
The women will return
And rip away the scales
Weighted
With ancient pain.
And trace the fault lines,
The abysses across her paint.

When they hold her hands and help Justice down
You should let them.
​
Justice will be saved by the women.



Mia Scattergood is a poet and writer of fiction and script from the North West of England. Her work is forthcoming in And Gallons Magazine. She is the second-place winner in the National Youth Flash Fiction Competition 2023, was a 2022 Commended Foyle Young Poet, and was a runner-up in the 2021 Young Walter Scott Prize.