The Wrong Kind

Wharf-pool water –

Century’s stagnant mirror –

Surface made of shattered

Butcher’s knife blades and

Shards of guillotine in a

Brick-sided drawer:

Live-Again Hulks

Touching down on

Riveted ribs, sore knees and knuckles

(But decorated toes curled up

Inside thin iron-skin slippers,

For this heavy-gravity water

Is Hellfire-cold today).

Stealing volume,

Pumping it into framed dark spaces.

Borrowing colour, these live-again hulks

Balance patiently on

Their own reflections,

Their own potential.

4/4/2013