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This poem is taken from PN Review 215, Volume 40 Number 3, January - February 2014.

Assange Militia' and Other Poems Rod Mengham
Assange Militia

I have this feeling for poetry
that it will give away my position.

It is one small step for you and me
one giant leap for librarians,
in sore need of boarding this craft
whose sails can never be trimmed.

We have picked them out of the identity parade
which assembles in silence out of breath;
up and down the artist prowls
wearing the wrong collar size: 'J'accuse!'

What makes you shudder is beyond all measure:
let's start with the froth on this beer, with the disused sickle
and hammer neglected in the attic
where fluff collects. It is mantling the entire earth
long before sunrise. There is just one twinkle
...


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