Only Boys

ONLY BOYS I saw today Russian sailor cadets, All in forbidding black uniforms And black fur hats. Twenty, Walking through the city to their barracks - Out-of-step for it wasn’t a parade - But still in column-of-twos. In the metro they milled around one end Of the carriage very politely. Like a small herd of furry Domesticated creatures, well-trained. Next year they will be on an aircraft carrier In the Gulf, in harm’s way; Or on guard in a submarine A thousand feet below the arctic ice-cap. But they were just boys really - Every one some Russian mother’s son.