{"id":1540,"date":"2009-01-01T09:27:12","date_gmt":"2009-01-01T09:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=1540"},"modified":"2009-01-01T09:27:12","modified_gmt":"2009-01-01T09:27:12","slug":"jeff-fleming-hears-some-advice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/jeff-fleming-hears-some-advice\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeff Fleming hears some advice"},"content":{"rendered":"

Several Bad Decisions<\/span>
 <\/span>
And so came a visitor<\/span>
one day rapping at my door<\/span>
like twin shotgun blasts<\/span>
BLAM<\/span>
BLAM<\/span>
and opening the door I saw a stranger<\/span>
an old man with a familiar smile<\/span>
that beguiled me and I let him in<\/span>
and he sat upon my couch<\/span>
on the middle cushion<\/span>
his skinny body sinking deep,<\/span>
he patted the other cushions<\/span>
an odd gesture, not inviting:<\/span>
 <\/span>
I don\u2019t have much time<\/span>
but I will share what I can<\/span>
you\u2019re headed toward trouble<\/span>
you can\u2019t see yet, but I can\u2019t forget<\/span>
life turns rocky and you almost succumb<\/span>
but I can help you, I\u2019ve drawn you a map<\/span>
a guidebook to your life<\/span>
as you are set to make<\/span>
several bad decisions<\/span>
this year,<\/span>
some things you can\u2019t change,<\/span>
he says<\/span>
holding up one hand<\/span>
with four fingers and angry old scars<\/span>
but others are easy,<\/span>
just dance to the side<\/span>
and the danger will pass harmlessly by<\/span>
for you<\/span>
life will continue<\/span>
you will know peace,<\/span>
follow the map,<\/span> he says<\/span>
and the pain in his voice<\/span>
is echoed in his eyes<\/span>
my eyes<\/span>
we breathe in time<\/span>
and I get it.<\/span>


* Jeff Fleming is the editor of <\/span>nibble<\/span> \u2013 <\/span>http:\/\/nibblepoems.wordpress.com<\/a> \u2013 he writes poetry when no one is looking.<\/span>
<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Several Bad Decisions And so came a visitorone day rapping at my doorlike twin shotgun blastsBLAMBLAMand opening the door I saw a strangeran old man with a familiar smilethat beguiled me and I let him inand he sat upon my couchon the middle cushionhis skinny body sinking deep,he patted the other cushionsan odd gesture, not inviting: I […]<\/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-1540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1540","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=1540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1540\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}