Worsen

the cossack vladivostok
comrades dance entrenches

shoot & cover crepitus

rush in mine
pins afore there a farther pull
& toss grenade (fodder
to pinprick)

the why are why our
barbed, raise raze heard
sniper-sharp in straightness
this of punk chirred sandbags
such drabness amidst danger

rife, all pilfered, a steel gun stolen
off a still soldier clicks
& clangs against      canteen
lead a packhorse past
all weak's meat

jaundiced & rotten sons sans,
gang green, cough &
through piss puss in shit
crepitus warble (that crypt)

cigarette tips lit       trace or, torch
you're in crepitus crepitus
pray           come the waves

per flame, per fume
on retreat, we take care to,
debt innate       are ours & all
& temples shot

Published under the name Jeanette Karhi in Phoebe, Fall 2007, Vol. 36, No. 2