<\/p>\n
Alien<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n As there are one hundred thousand million<\/p>\n stars in our galaxy,<\/p>\n and one hundred thousand million galaxies,<\/p>\n I would expect some variety.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n But the astronomer affected surprise<\/p>\n when she informed a marvelling<\/p>\n journalist that two planets,<\/p>\n recently discovered in an incomprehensibly<\/p>\n distant star system, are unlike<\/p>\n any found before and make<\/p>\n the prospect of life, as we know it,<\/p>\n existing elsewhere in the universe<\/p>\n statistically unlikely.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I like to think of life as we don\u2019t know it,<\/p>\n muddled along in some impossible environment<\/p>\n by fantastic beings fretting over bills<\/p>\n whilst putting holidays and treats<\/p>\n on weirdly shaped credit cards;<\/p>\n or milling madly in another dimension,<\/p>\n invisible, under our noses, complaining<\/p>\n of sudden, lung-bursting winds<\/p>\n and torrential, gelatinous downpours.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Like tonight, from the train, lettered<\/p>\n in lights on London\u2019s familiar sky:<\/p>\n Abbey -elf Storage<\/em>.<\/p>\n And the tweeded lady opposite,<\/p>\n making a note and smirking<\/p>\n at her reflection in the glass.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Michael Hughes<\/strong> has had a variety of occupations in his long working life, from digging graves to founding Can Do Education Limited. \u00a0Currently, he is teaching English\u00a0at a London secondary school where he has launched the Alive Poets Society for the enjoyment of the reading and writing of modern poetry among his students.(http:\/\/alivepoetssociety.pbworks.com<\/a><\/span> ).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Alien As there are one hundred thousand million stars in our galaxy, and one hundred thousand million galaxies, I would expect some variety. But the astronomer affected surprise when she informed a marvelling journalist that two planets, recently discovered in an incomprehensibly distant star system, are unlike any found before and make […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"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-2822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2822","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=2822"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2824,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2822\/revisions\/2824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}