{"id":1342,"date":"2008-08-14T11:36:57","date_gmt":"2008-08-14T11:36:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=1342"},"modified":"2008-08-14T11:36:57","modified_gmt":"2008-08-14T11:36:57","slug":"a-double-sonnet-by-ken-head","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/a-double-sonnet-by-ken-head\/","title":{"rendered":"A double sonnet by Ken Head"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Good As Gone <\/span>


Moonlight bright as day and cleaner <\/span>
slices between broken-open houses<\/span>
waiting for the demolition crews<\/span>
and a row of battered skips stuffed<\/span>
full of goods and chattels left behind <\/span>
by families who lived here not so long<\/span>
ago but\u2019ve been moved on to free<\/span>
up space for the future.  Rats skitter <\/span>
among heaped-up plastic bin bags <\/span>
shining like jaundiced black gold under <\/span>
the only street light, oily JCB\u2019s stand <\/span>
nose to tail and the last bar, defiance <\/span>
blazing through steamed-up glass, stares<\/span>
fate in the eye from across the street.<\/span>

~ ~ ~ ~ ~<\/span>

The young nurse who asks kindly if you\u2019ve<\/span>
any questions about the procedure <\/span>
while she double-checks your paperwork just<\/span>
in case, can\u2019t be much more than twenty-four<\/span>
or thereabouts.  No, you say, not after<\/span>
so many years.  She smiles and in her eyes<\/span>
you think you see the quick connection:  \u201cWhen <\/span>
this one was first diagnosed, I was twelve.  <\/span>
He\u2019s been coming here half my life\u201d.  She\u2019s right,<\/span>
you have, but measuring your luck afresh<\/span>
every time you face a new appointment<\/span>
still leaves you feeling helpless, hollowed-out,<\/span>
a promising project once, maybe, but<\/span>
these days getting expensive to maintain.<\/p>\n

* <\/span><\/font>Ken Head's poetry weblog is at www.listeningforlight.blogspot.com<\/a> and he'll appreciate your dropping in to browse and maybe leave a comment if you're passing.<\/font>

<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Good As Gone Moonlight bright as day and cleaner slices between broken-open houseswaiting for the demolition crewsand a row of battered skips stuffedfull of goods and chattels left behind by families who lived here not so longago but\u2019ve been moved on to freeup space for the future.  Rats skitter among heaped-up plastic bin bags […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","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-1342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1342","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1342\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}