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This poem is taken from PN Review 100, Volume 21 Number 2, November - December 1994.

Five Poems C.H. Sisson

On a Troopship
They are already made
Why should they go
Into boring society
Among the soldiery?
But I, whose imperfection
Is evident and admitted
Needing further assurance
Must year-long be pitted
Against fool and trooper
Practising my integrity
In awkward places,
Walking till I walk easily
Among uncomprehended faces
Extracting the root
...


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