Hastati<\/strong><\/p>\n They flicker to attention, a shoal switchblading, <\/p>\n Jo Young<\/a> is an Army veteran and mum to two young boys. She retired from the Regular Army in 2014 and has been writing ever since. She is currently studying for a doctorate on the University of Glasgow’s Creative Writing Programme.<\/p>\n Jo Young<\/a> was shortlisted for the 2016 Flambard Poetry Prize<\/a>. An anthology featuring more poems by 2016’s prizewinners is available here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hastati They flicker to attention, a shoal switchblading, blinking at bellowed orders, nervous in anticipation of the wrong-foot or a stumbled halt. Among the new…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2405,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[422,505],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2412"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2412"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2416,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2412\/revisions\/2416"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nblinking at bellowed orders,
\nnervous in anticipation of the wrong-foot or
\na stumbled halt. Among the new recruits,
\nsome cannot withstand boots, their feet Adidas-soft with arches dropped.
\nGrinning bravado, street-wise faces,
\nsmirking at no more rolling balls or all day baking,<\/em>
\nbecause, listen to this,<\/em>
\nwe<\/em> will test your piss.<\/em>
\nA few days and like lacquered herring they unify,
\nwanting it with every pore of their acned chests;
\nthe urge to move with this current or die un-comraded,
\neasy prey, cast aside to the grilled-window grey.
\nA ribbon in the hand of a martinet gymnast,
\nthe snap of purpose holds fast; they get on parade.<\/p>\n