Two Boys

by Sebastian Kettner

Two boys knot together, 
writhing on the ground
in flashes of gray and blue, black and red
blood pilling together in the white sand heat,
gulls screaming, great exaggerators;
like loose horses crashing down,
their eyes flung away, baring their teeth
as if their skulls were peeling through their mouths.

One boy rises over the other.
His hair mats to his forehead in brittle clumps.
The bright red streaks already dry on his cheek.  —  
He whirls his head there! and there!
as if he had heard a single word
resound from the center of the sea.

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