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Writing from the stemistry lab

Common language

by Marilyn Longstaff

About this author

In harsh neon,
sucked from warm beds
cut off from our own kind
banged-up in the frozen dark
with all these foreigners.

What have we done wrong?

There were others here, heads
down, getting on with things,
obedience hard-wired;
MULTIPLY – they multiplied
DIE – they died.

At first light:

OUT OF YOUR PITS
FORM A NEAT LINE
QUICKMARCHQUICKMARCH
FIRST ON THE RIGHT
KNOCK    AND ENTER