Abstruse Servicemen of Plate Tracery

Echoes of tanglefoot laughter
outside on the frosted bench
where the catabolism of joy
sits pregnant like a whale song
in the ditches of starbase mornings

contra proferentem laundry dresses
against the dancing wind like stolen
tin soldiers in the heated winter morning,
a dip pen inking frustration against service
and deployed army banks like shattered
chiacked persuasion – the dismissal
of formalized servicemen of plate tracery
without a father or a sound de jure