Girl Soldier

When we were as wooden leaders
Done up in an antique theater 
Dangling from a plus-sign stick 
I would have never clipped your feelers 
Seen you wielding a machine 
That hurdled men into unrest 

Together we would dance around like pioneers 
Beneath the awning overseeing Lenin’s reign 

Would you have wanted then to undermine our cabaret?
These brutish fiends who jabber in the gym 
Yapping over barbell slams and unctuous  
Proceedings
Muscle spasms in the evening 
Over candlelit careenings 
Playing with the candle wax— 
Do they mean a thing to me?

At least your temper might have 
Waded through the trestles 
Mess hall with those metal mirrors  
Plastic plates and plastic leaders 
In my vision you were seizing 
Silver-toned resplendent earrings 
Somewhere in a brittle meadow 
Wedged between me and my pleadings 
You waxed bohemian

Lost in folly’s black penumbra 
This is an unstable dealing 
Proper nuisance pumped out from a private school 
Polo shirts and loafers
Aviators on your head 

Every day I think of passing by your office 
Sometime around 4pm 
Round about the flag that overlooks 
The outskirts of the river 

And you were smiling just like a marine 
Thought you’d be too fragile to subsist in war
Too absorbed to save your country 
As you made yourself anathema to me 

I was seething last September
Took you into a latrine 
There I thought that I should 
Kiss you on your dirty knees 

And if I were a girl soldier
Maybe I could follow in your wake 

You could always change it back 
Instead of breathing this inclement weather 
You’ll be sure to catch a cold 
Well what’s the point of that?

And I wouldn’t trust you with a gun 
I would not deem you my defender  

In the mess hall I am crawling on my knees 
In the sixties
Soldiers were sent off to fight in fracas
There to simmer and to sing
And if I were a girl soldier 
You’d be marching in my own brigade 

I am not your brain’s alembic 
There to waft off all the terrible 
Things 

Flaunting your medallions and wings 
We are in this banquet that extends towards infinity 
In the brambles of decay 
When you left me for this patriot’s assay