He came to town one Thursday<\/p>\n
all\u00a0dirty, wild and worn.<\/p>\n
His steed was lithe and sturdy<\/p>\n
His clothes were slightly torn.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
People started whispering<\/p>\n
as townsfolk often do:<\/p>\n
Was this bloke a traveller?<\/p>\n
or from that mining crew?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He settled in the local pub<\/p>\n
and hogged the bloody fire<\/p>\n
brooding over middies<\/p>\n
until he’d then retire.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The local folk were edgy<\/p>\n
at this silent, dusty\u00a0stranger.<\/p>\n
He seemed to carry with him<\/p>\n
an air of sullen danger.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Just a few days later on<\/p>\n
the whole town met to ponder<\/p>\n
the man who’d built their township<\/p>\n
and another one just yonder.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Old Man Age had taken him<\/p>\n
a week or so before<\/p>\n
and everyone who knew him<\/p>\n
felt a sadness to the core.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
So\u00a0as the speeches ended<\/p>\n
and the silence fell around<\/p>\n
the Stranger put his hand up<\/p>\n
and his voice he finally found:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“I’ve come to town to pay respects<\/p>\n
to the man who gave me life.<\/p>\n
I have no\u00a0other siblings<\/p>\n
nor a mother, nor a wife.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
And now I have no father<\/p>\n
with whom\u00a0to reconcile.<\/p>\n
Stubbornness and petty pride<\/p>\n
made me a imbecile.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
30 years ago we fought<\/p>\n
and 30 years have fled<\/p>\n
with not a word between us<\/p>\n
and now, my father’s dead.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
So take my words and listen<\/p>\n
for I’m leaving town today:<\/p>\n
Never let the curtain fall<\/p>\n
on a half-arsed written play.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
He came to town one Thursday all\u00a0dirty, wild and worn. His steed was lithe and sturdy His clothes were slightly torn. People started whispering as townsfolk often do: Was this bloke a traveller? or from that mining crew? He settled in the local…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":660,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,441],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem","category-poetry-prompt-responses"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/660"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7922"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12774,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7922\/revisions\/12774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}