Stuck fast in a pebbled beach,
A sentry’s noiseless pain flows
Tidal in its obsessive analysis
Loath to log the first wounds
In a battle between beasts
The palisades stand
Enclosed by a flood
Of faded sirens
And smashed-in skulls
Here come the medics with mortal fire
Looking to pacify, deigning to paralyse
Here come the watchers with bleach-black eyes
Concealing tangled decisions
And facile designs
Of a mind dismantled,
One sting at a time
The tide recedes, exposing
Secrets whispered through marrow and vein
And a sleeping womb beneath an iron rule
The clock disowns its hands,
The death of an insect,
The birth of a shrine
My ground dissolves, line after line after line
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