.

when facing the barrel of a gun at sea

The Nation shall call upon the poets

as fishermen call upon The Nation

.

beyond the call of The Nation

the fishermen shall bite their tongue and listen

the poems

as they lay iced in the hold ready for shore

.

they shall ask the poets:

– Now gentlemen

why won’t you bite your tongue

swallow a gulp of seawater

so the words may understand the saltiness

of salt

.

yet needed is blood, needed more here is salt

so your throat

can feel

the burning pain

of a wound

the chirpy tweets of birds

which keeps peeling but would never scar

_____

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