open-eyed to the light
sunset I know

rifleman who so wanted
to be his father officer

tape-played bugle notes brassily
resounded

as a half-yank he joined US
skipjack subs patent
"stand by to submerge"

stand easy arrows
this years highest mark
sap singing serge flesh

watch blue on orange
deep patrol lost
with a personal hand-gun

smooth dull gun-barrels tall
figures luminous
virgin blancoed webbing

anxious peachy cheeks
redjackets once bore arms

glowing halves enacting
duty responsibly laying
down blood to belay
knots securely

ambitious sniper becoming
technical fizzing rejection

to the rack blinkered
above these military
horizons flags half-mast over
folds cold waters

time down knocking boxes
together wrongly
threaded screw
Boards blink blink then

Yes Sir! No Sir! By the right
dress! Sir! Yes Sir! Spunk
channeled to future hardness
wanting it thrust into blessing
me salt-tar son-ohs

in come sharp-bowed destroyer

Disappear for a month
then re-appear
bodging seedy cogs
grease-monkey
Pistons crank shaft 3 thou
whitworth or metric tampling
shift left bit patterns

pannelled in brightness my

solemnity high contrast
whistles shine white hats

but you UMIST Physics 1st
Big feet goose-green m'boy:
too many Brit war films father

hemp-twisted ensign
slips to twitch-fall
pulleys rattle
ships bell rings double
once twice again

drifted lank blown
plastic models neatly
once shared dream shouldn't
ever
brought us to this?