<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The living-rooms of people in later life<\/strong><\/p>\n The living-rooms of people in later life Most, though, are tidy The living-rooms of people in later life <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Michael W. Thomas<\/b>\u2019s <\/b>latest novel is Pilgrims at the White Horizon.\u00a0 <\/i>Poetry collections include Batman\u2019s Hill <\/i>and Early and Late<\/i>.\u00a0 Publications in The Antioch Review, Critical Survey <\/i>and the TLS.\u00a0 <\/i>In 2015, his novella, \u2018Esp\u2019, was shortlisted for the UK Novella Award. Links: www.michaelwthomas.co.uk <\/a>‘The Swan Village Reporter’ http:\/\/swansreport.blogspot. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The living-rooms of people in later life The living-rooms of people in later life are sometimes a mess as though they also must over time droop and unhinge. Most, though, are tidy their lines of reach and access as clear as traceries of rain on sunlit webs their variegated bits of stuff somehow […]<\/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-18202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18202","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=18202"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18203,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18202\/revisions\/18203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nare sometimes a mess
\nas though they also must over time
\ndroop and unhinge.<\/p>\n
\ntheir lines of reach and access as clear
\nas traceries of rain on sunlit webs
\ntheir variegated bits of stuff somehow aware
\nthey must wait out the young-old years
\nthe last go of apple health
\nand then themselves shine
\nquietly promote the critical button
\nthe necessary switch.
\nRemotes are always to hand
\nimmortal pets
\nsave when they aren\u2019t
\nwhen they must be arraigned
\namong those boxes on that shelf
\nby the door from kitchen to garage
\nbut that\u2019s just their way.<\/p>\n
\nare a circle of wagons
\nthat tighten while everyone is out
\nstill taking the seasons on the nose
\nuntil that\u2019s that for that.
\nThen they are proper glad
\nof the hand-span narrows
\nthe carpeted O
\nknowing that beyond has become steeps and plains
\nwhere old fires gutter
\nwhere the staircase conjures
\never and again an extra step
\nwhere the loft revolves unsorted
\nthe moon of a planet
\nthat once was lived right down to the metal
\nthe finger-sifted earth.
\n <\/p>\n