DS Marriott

DOO BOYS

get on get on

I remember the sheering
   semicircles and orbits
            greenblack or vermillion
    and the scissored air & sharp turns
                        like skin or conjunctions
            insecure squatters on the lines
                and each heartopened movement
a thread of embroidery
                        or line capsizing
            or word
                        lost in the morning of each mist
                         (sailors in white stockings)
            delicate like loyalty or hate--

and each point of departure
   hovering in between the stations
            a blur on the brim of estates
     furring the edges
                                of expectations
eyes listening
            for the inventories
                        unexpectedly triumphant or doleful--

      doo boys
            for whom there is no reply
                        that does not end
               here on the horizon
                        of each cleaving stroke
    where each promise was kept
                 and each breath was held
an unforgiving song of retribution
            a desolation neither fixed nor seldom
                                         the colours (ever
                        lasting)
   echoing each tumble and swoop

DS Marriott is the author of In Neuter (Equipage, 2013) and The Bloods (Shearsman, 2011). He is currently completing a book of essays on the work of Frantz Fanon.