<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Lazy Joe<\/strong><\/p>\n Such a sullen beast, that heart, And the mind is a creepy blob-monster in a cave. Only the mouth protests this languor, <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n John Grey<\/strong> is an Australian born poet. Recently published in Paterson Literary Review, Southern California Review<\/em> and Natural Bridge<\/em> with work upcoming in the Kerf, Leading Edge<\/em> and Louisiana Literature.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Lazy Joe Such a sullen beast, that heart, and fat and listless, gorging on blood that comes so easy to it with every lazy pump; and the lungs, more creatures with nothing better to do that devour great lumps of air. rattle the stuff around in old cigarette-stained sacs then wheeze it […]<\/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-7816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7816","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=7816"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7818,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7816\/revisions\/7818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nand fat and listless, gorging on blood
\nthat comes so easy to it with every lazy pump;
\nand the lungs, more creatures with nothing better to do
\nthat devour great lumps of air. rattle the stuff around
\nin old cigarette-stained sacs then wheeze it out
\nlike a leaking tire.<\/p>\n
\nstill and silent but for a long grotesque red tongue
\nthat zaps thoughts like flies:
\nso what can the body do but obey orders,
\nslump into chairs, crawl up on sofas.
\nooze under sheets, take up space.<\/p>\n
\nattempts every now and then to fight back a little;
\n“yes I promise.” it says, and believes,
\n“I will. I will,” it adds and is never surer;
\nbut gross and slow and unwilling is the soul swine:
\nwhen necessary for survival, it sits heavy on his life;
\nat the first sign of intention, it knows where to find him.<\/p>\n