{"id":8372,"date":"2023-08-07T20:56:03","date_gmt":"2023-08-07T20:56:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/?p=8372"},"modified":"2023-08-07T20:56:03","modified_gmt":"2023-08-07T20:56:03","slug":"a-stand-off-between-man-beast-im-down-twenty-minutes-of-glory-3-poems-by-bradford-middleton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/a-stand-off-between-man-beast-im-down-twenty-minutes-of-glory-3-poems-by-bradford-middleton\/","title":{"rendered":"A STAND-OFF BETWEEN MAN & BEAST, I\u2019M DOWN & TWENTY MINUTES OF GLORY. 3 Poems by Bradford Middleton"},"content":{"rendered":"
\r\n \r\n\r\nA STAND-OFF BETWEEN MAN & BEAST<\/strong> \r\n\r\nThe pigeons sit, resting on the wall of\r\nA rich old bird who owns one of the muse\r\nHouses I back onto, and somehow I grow\r\nTransfixed, this weed is really good I\r\nSuddenly think, as I stand staring at them\r\nAs if they\u2019re new friends, wondering aloud\r\nWhich one will go away first.  Which will\r\nDessert me first, like so many others in\r\nThis sorry excuse for a life, I think as one\r\nMoves back down the roof and out of\r\nSight as another turns their back to me but\r\nThe other two remain, steadfast and strong,\r\nStaring right back at me and this stand-off\r\nGoes on for a while, I\u2019m maybe even more\r\nStoned than I think, and sure enough it\u2019s me\r\nWho grows bored first and, as seems to be\r\nThe way of this and so many other days, I know\r\nIt\u2019s time for another smoke, another distraction.\r\n\r\nI\u2019M DOWN<\/strong>\r\n\r\nThese words came and whispered\r\nSweet nothings in my ear & I knew\r\nMy muse had returned.\r\n\r\nA month, a long\r\nLong, awful long\r\nMonth since I last sat down &\r\nLaid the words on down\r\nBut now, at last, I\u2019m down\r\nDown enough to know\r\nI\u2019ve got to get this down\r\nBefore I fall any further.\r\n\r\nTWENTY MINUTES OF GLORY<\/strong>\r\n\r\nThe street of ill-repute has struck again\r\nBringing me a diamond in the rough.  I\r\nWas walking home, just now, from the\r\nLaundry centre, nothing really spectacular\r\nTo report there, just another of those typical\r\nMonthly rituals, when as I walk on heaving\r\nAll my gear behind me out the door and down\r\nThe street I run into an old bar-man I know.\r\n\r\n We exchanged pleasantries for a while and\r\nI told him of my frustrations at waiting on\r\nA call from a man up top of London Road\r\nWaiting on a call\r\nA call to come round\r\nBuy something good\r\nAnd be gone from there in the blink of an eye.\r\n\r\nToday however the old bar-man came through\r\nAs I now sit here, high as I like, listening to the amazing\r\nMiles blasting out Sanctuary\r\nAs at last my appetite returns and\r\nIn the space of twenty short minutes my life has changed\r\nTaken a up-curve on this previously most frustrating of days.\r\n<\/pre>\n
 
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\nBIOGRAPHY<\/strong>
\n 
\nBradford Middleton <\/strong>still lives in Brighton on England\u2019s south-coast where he works part-time in a shop and full-time on his words.  His latest book, The Whiskey Stings Good Tonight, was recently published by the Alien Buddha Press<\/em>.  Recent poems have appeared in Cajun Mutt Press, Cacti Fur, Fixator Press, Horror Sleaze Trash, Rye Whiskey Review<\/em> and the glorious Mad Swirl<\/em>.  He tweets occasionally @BradfordMiddle5.<\/p>\n
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A STAND-OFF BETWEEN MAN & BEAST The pigeons sit, resting on the wall of A rich old bird who owns one of the muse Houses I back onto, and somehow I grow Transfixed, this weed is really good I Suddenly think, as I stand staring at them As if they\u2019re new friends, wondering aloud Which … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[734,808,796,366,401,43],"tags":[18,136,3],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8372"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8372"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8372\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8376,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8372\/revisions\/8376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}