{"id":2233,"date":"2021-07-27T10:43:45","date_gmt":"2021-07-27T09:43:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/?p=2233"},"modified":"2023-11-12T11:38:12","modified_gmt":"2023-11-12T11:38:12","slug":"my-back-pages-thunder-circling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/?p=2233","title":{"rendered":"Thunder Circling: Thames Valley Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/rave.jpg?resize=640%2C360&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2234\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/rave.jpg?w=1000&amp;ssl=1 1000w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/rave.jpg?resize=300%2C169&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/rave.jpg?resize=768%2C432&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/rave.jpg?resize=676%2C381&amp;ssl=1 676w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>THUNDER CIRCLING<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He needed to talk to someone.<br>It happened to be us.<br>His rolled tobacco slipped from his fingers<br>as he went over events fifty years before.<br>The harbour, Singapore, thunder circling<br>and lightning flashing across the sea.<br>A merchant navy man,<br>sitting on deck with his mates,<br>watching a free show.<br>&#8216;lf they&#8217;s could only &#8216;arness that energy&#8217;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The same bar two hours later.<br>Someone else who wanted to talk<br>but blocked by E&#8217;s, drunk,<br>it came in staccato bursts, the sense,<br>mouthed through a vocabulary<br>borrowed from rap, rave and T.V.<br>Eighteen, jobless, staring through glass<br>at a wet car park, he rocks gently<br>like a ship stuck in harbour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Outside, flashing lights, sirens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">1993<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>THUNDER CIRCLING He needed to talk to someone.It happened to be us.His rolled tobacco slipped from his fingersas he went over events fifty years before.The harbour, Singapore, thunder circlingand lightning flashing across the sea.A merchant navy man,sitting on deck with his mates,watching a free show.&#8216;lf they&#8217;s could only &#8216;arness that energy&#8217;. The same bar two&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[103,100,34,33,106,91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-landmine","category-my-back-pages","category-poem-a-day","category-poetry","category-new-poems","category-working-class-poetry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6nhh-A1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2233"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2900,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2233\/revisions\/2900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}