Found these in one of my old notebooks; two verisons of the same event.

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“All right people, blades up, look alive!”
and up they come, in threes and fours
wavering barbs in preteen hands
Special rehearsal for Cymbeline’s war

“Begin!”

One long roar
of young female voices
then silence
but for the clicks and the clacks
of the patterns of clocks—
top, right left—top right left—

Look at me, pay attention
You’ve a sword in your hand!
Can’t you see that you’ll hit me?
Boys don’t know their own strength

“I’m a little teapot, short and stout!”
Maria calls the retreat
the soldiers relieved
the actress too
for the rest, the end of danger
a chance to rub the raw pink blisters
and stretch the ache in her limbs

“We’ll try it again, with the other cast”
the one where she’s the leading man
A brief wait, again the yell
She grins and dashes in
to save the day, the King

Again the Britons win!

It’s easier as the agressor
But now they’ve switched again
back
to “blades up, look alive!”