some boys
- after reading The Boys are turning into Men by Omar Musa
the boys are Sundaying and
RDO-ing with tinnies and stubbies
testing the air with their braggery
not to mention some wankery
voices akimbo with oathery
Davo and Johnno and Stevo
just don’t give a buggery
admiring each other’s tattoo-ery
later they’ll be footying and some high fivery
even a bit of shitfuckery
along with noworries-tooeasy
other boys are listening to the wind’s words
they’re leaning into starlight and discovering tears
some boys are learning pity some
boys are turning into men
- © John Bartlett 2023
John Bartlett was the winner of the 2020 Ada Cambridge Poetry Prize and Highly Commended in the 2021 Mundaring Poetry Competition. In 2023 Ginninderra Press will release his second full collection Excitations of Entanglement.
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