<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Answer<\/strong><\/p>\n Oh, you know me: resourceful type.\u00a0 I’ll manage.<\/p>\n \u2013 my reply You understood, as did we both, legerdemain, no more, and, being my confederate In truth, nor did we ever \u2013 even in the Now, Doing fine, thanks.\u00a0 That’s the way it goes They understand \u2013 are grateful for \u2013 and, being my confederates <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Currently based in Norwich, Birkenhead-born Ken Cumberlidge<\/strong> has been writing and performing his work for 40+ years. Recent work has appeared online (Algebra of Owls \/ IS&T \/ The Open Mouse \/ Picaroon \/ Spilling Cocoa\u2026 \/ Strange Poetry \/ Snakeskin<\/em>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Answer Oh, you know me: resourceful type.\u00a0 I’ll manage. \u2013 my reply as we sat in a corridor grown too familiar, waiting for the nurse to call your name. You understood, as did we both, the function of the words \u2014 legerdemain, no more, (the act well-practised now) to feint, divert […]<\/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-15260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15260","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=15260"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15341,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15260\/revisions\/15341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nas we sat in a corridor grown too familiar,
\nwaiting for the nurse to call your name.<\/p>\n
\nthe function of the words \u2014<\/p>\n
\n(the act well-practised now)
\nto feint, divert and by such palming
\ndraw attention from the squirming gnaw
\nof it: the fear \u2013 insidious, tacit, dark \u2013
\nwe held and hid in kind<\/p>\n
\nin this triumph of illusion,
\nsmiled as though you’d never had a doubt.<\/p>\n
\nwe’d not a clue between us
\nhow I’d make my way<\/p>\n
\ndwindling, end-of-season days
\nwhen fear and falsehood both
\nhad given way to last-act honesty
\nand oral morphine taken as required.<\/p>\n
\nreaching for the calendar
\nto tear off and discard
\na month used up
\nlike every other month
\nwithout you,
\nI know the answer.<\/p>\n
\non the rarer-now-and-few occasions
\npeople think to ask.<\/p>\n
\nthe function of the words<\/p>\n
\nin this triumph of illusion,
\nsmile.<\/p>\n