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 the good soldier by Chris Mansell 
						on someone else's placeit seems to him the land
 slings distance way out
 the dirt is dead and
 the sky seems twisted
 the beat of the stones is wrong
 he doesn't know how to say it
 there are no words no opportunity
 and	anyway
 what would you say
 that you're a stranger
 and this doesn't say it at all
 
 he walks with his weapon through the town
 and from time to time he sees the luscious curl
 of intimacy the uncommon common life
 it's dressed differently he can't understand
 the language rasping and gargling
 another time he'd be an interested tourist
 now he's a hunter and the hunted
 
 soon they say
 he'll be freed to retreat home
 where the earth is vein deep
 and when he puts his hand on the ground
 he'll feel it beating but now
 he can't remember home
 though he knows the words well enough
 back paddock    Steve's paddock   the yard
 it's just words but now the imam calls
 and winds a veil around his senses
 and sometimes he thinks he'll never
 get back to where he belonged
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