Army Fatigues

 

by Nikolai Duffy

 

 

 

 

1.

 

 

Faces of no one as in book of faces devoid of and no attempt to the way eyes collect numbers and depart where and outwards such that none the never never less as of abdicate without purpose into unfolding of and knife point scratchings to render port to pass illegible as of what boundary where smacks of tangible.  Here no deluge as of nowhere to speak of nor collecting but what going out the difference of not this and a body parts company to flout issue for the sake of worldly exception.

 

 

 

 

2.

 

 

What many barrels trained on it and to still miss.  Aloof on a roof sighting to range.  As of brick dust in the manner of blood as in the track-limits of bulldozer.  When of ear to hear unheard.  And admit of no figure.  Of an other body.  In the manner of simple.  Or to shut of hypothesis.  Must.  Confession part of.  Elsewhere.

 

 

 

 

3.

 

 

Or of measure of water.  Laid out restrictions as in nautical miles even though flak of movement necessarily by matter of substance considered seriously protracted by gunboat brow chugging toward held fast mast of bargain as in give and take at guided in mouth of what way and whose when case of counting without hand reveal but gape of spokesword to and fro unambiguously contested diplomatic corner.

 

 

 

 

4.

 

 

Helm stuck of it howling oars back waves blanch and not there live.  Such that weight of arms boning at socket.  Arrested and touch to see detained with.  As in method of tracking how body is to hack and shredded as of lung tissue.  As of shaved wood stripped to the stain of ink.  And not made in manner of reaching is agony of betrayal of lump and of foul that of skewer of salt-glint.  Such that no society but version of famish of eating to exclusion of others.

 

 

 

 

5.

 

 

Grounding of book space.  Who gives a whit what.  Bones break as of paper spine but necessary know cut of it.  The way abdicate gives out.  And what problem is elbow to eye as in organise particulars of space of dwell in room and dimensions dread hands scalloped bent to think frame of in windfolds and of bodies unfrozen as in melting sightwards in whose attitude scraped as it is to neither.  Letters cut up let ting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

6.

 

 

No room for it. But sliced and of part as in remnants of representation stubbed to state.  Toe struck lake folds into certain citation in that less encounter division as let flow it as frame, fallow, falling through as of sinew see out there to blurring.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nikolai Duffy is a lecturer in English at Manchester Metropolitan University.  He has published articles on poetics, innovative writing practices and the visual arts.  His chapbook, the little shed of various lamps, is published by The Red Ceilings Press.