By DLC Hanson
Bedraggled and spent, the passionless and the damned
scrambled south through febrile grume,
hemmed and steered by sleight of hand.
Burnished brambles mocked atrophic blanche
as busted guts gorged on nowt bar fumes.
Bedraggled and spent, the passionless and the damned,
clad in roughshod pelts-untanned,
drifted—benumbed—midst wildering simoom,
hemmed and steered by sleight of hand.
Shuffling sundry symphylan
uncoupling desires, furrowed and groomed,
bedraggled and spent, the passionless and the damned
dripfed through wax-sealed, unbrushed glands,
forged onward, steely hecatomb,
hemmed and steered by sleight of hand.
No festooned ingress to the Fatherland,
no freckling tides nor bairn-blessed wombs:
bedraggled and spent, the passionless and the damned,
hemmed and steered by sleight of hand.