Arun Jeetoo

THEY 

After A.L. Kennedy


The delights of their bodies are a gift they don’t understand.
Delights a gift understand their bodies the of don’t they are.
of a gift, the don’t delights understand bodies their are they.
their understand the delights a don’t bodies of are they gift.
bodies understand they are their gift, don’t delights of the a.
are delights the bodies, understand they don’t of a gift their.

a gift of are don’t their they delights, bodies, understand the.
gift don’t understand, their are bodies they of a the delights.
they bodies delights the a gift understand don’t their are of.
don’t understand a gift of their the they are delights bodies.
understand their bodies are a gift of the they delights don’t.
They don’t get your body like i do.
like i want to—
again.

THE SWIMMING POOL GOD

in the      changing room    all the boys    were
                       enamoured 
by his       rouge marked thighs
                                 purple  neck  bruise
white blistered knuckles               
they all took   notes and interview 
the swimming pool god 
           lapped it up         faster than any 
protein shake        
                       during practice 

his electric limbs              pulsated
                               to the rhythms 
of a            sailfish 

the golden medals   
              outshined
his smiles     winning every 
championship                     because 

water was

     an elysium    to leave behind   the adults
who monopolised                  mesomorphic bodies  

 water was                     

A vindication of existence 
without       prevarication 

this wonderful time of his life 
submerged by the weight       of        
              his shrieks  

                    fall

    the light did not reach him     

Image ID: text arranged in vertical and horizontal lines, in three step like movements, on either side of a solid diagonal line passing from the image’s top left corner to the bottom right. The text above the line changes over its progression from ‘délice’ to ‘délit’ to ‘dé’. Below the line, from ‘délit’ to ‘délice’ to ‘dé’.

Arun Jeetoo is a poet and educator from London, UK. His words appear in The London Reader, CivicLecister’s Black Lives Matter Anthology, 3 of Cups Press and The Best New British and Irish Poets 2019-2021. His debut pamphlet I Want to Be the One You Think About at Night was published by Waterloo Press (2020).
Instagram @G2poetry.