<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I put a wolf in the basement<\/strong><\/p>\n The wolf is arguing with my neighbours. They do not know why The wolf paces between So no matter what he says, <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ross McCleary<\/strong> is from Edinburgh. His work has been published by 404 Ink, Structo, <\/em>and Litro.<\/em> He helps runs spoken word open mic Inky Fingers and does Poetry Shows with Andrew Blair under the name Poetry As Fuck<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I put a wolf in the basement The wolf is arguing with my neighbours. He is asking to be let out. He is persuasive, and good at small talk. He is no danger to them, but he is a crack in the pipes. I cannot remove him, cannot take an axe to […]<\/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":[138,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2019-poetry-picks","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18441","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=18441"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18520,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18441\/revisions\/18520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nHe is asking to be let out.
\nHe is persuasive, and good at small talk.
\nHe is no danger to them,
\nbut he is a crack in the pipes.
\nI cannot remove him,
\ncannot take an axe to his guts.
\nFor he is the threat of rising water.<\/p>\n
\nI locked him up
\nBut they get it, they do,
\nBecause the wolf is not alone.
\nThe basement is filled with rotting boxes
\nand unused furniture.
\nFull of memories
\nthat have been gifted
\nto that room for safe-keeping.
\nThe basement is a reminder
\nthere is no guilt
\ntime cannot erode.<\/p>\n
\nCrates stuffed with dusty tomes, old diaries,
\npostcards and letters.
\nThere are secrets there
\nand the boxes don\u2019t have to be
\nfilled with blades to
\ncut open old wounds.
\nThey only have to leave an itch,
\nmake you blush
\nenough to throw these things into boxes
\ncover it with sheets and
\nshape those sheets into a wolf
\nthat comes alive when you\u2019re not there
\nto argue for its release.<\/p>\n
\nAnd no matter the threats he makes,
\nThe wolf cannot win because
\nmy neighbour\u2019s wolves
\nare also in the basement,
\nsleeping while he\u2019s awake,
\nthey are no danger to me
\njust thin cracks along the pipes
\nbut if my neighbour\u2019s set mine free
\nI will take an axe to their cracked pipes
\nAnd cause a flood
\nthat will rise through the building
\nAnd because I live on the third floor
\nI will not be the first to drown.<\/p>\n