<\/p>\n
Proximity<\/strong><\/p>\n At night we hear him. We lie awake, I recall, as a child, The street has been folded up <\/p>\n James R Kilner’<\/strong>s first collection of poems, Frequencies of Light<\/em>, is out now. He is a former newspaper journalist and holds a PhD from the University of Leeds. Originally from Yorkshire, he now lives on Tyneside. Please visit www.jameskilnerwriter.wordpress.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Proximity At night we hear him. Behind the wall behind our headboard our neighbour is trying to clear his lungs. Sometimes he calls for his wife. We lie awake, silent and inert. I recall, as a child, not daring to move, hearing my grandfather calling my mother\u2019s name over and over, having fallen in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12081"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12081\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12082,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12081\/revisions\/12082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nBehind the wall
\nbehind our headboard
\nour neighbour
\nis trying to clear his lungs.
\nSometimes he calls for his wife.<\/p>\n
\nsilent and inert.<\/p>\n
\nnot daring to move,
\nhearing my grandfather
\ncalling my mother\u2019s name
\nover and over,
\nhaving fallen in his room
\non the way for a pee.
\nI would stare at the ceiling
\nwishing she would wake,
\nwilling her to hear.<\/p>\n
\nand put away for the night.
\nBeyond, specks of orange light seem to move.
\nEach is a light on a road
\nI\u2019ll never walk,
\nby a house I\u2019ll never see,
\nwhere a grandfather
\nfalls or cannot clear his lungs.
\nPerhaps a curtain twitches
\nlike an eyelid, and someone looks back
\nat a speck of orange light.
\nPerhaps one day they will watch
\nas a light flickers
\nand goes out.<\/p>\n