{"id":2619,"date":"2016-09-27T13:24:41","date_gmt":"2016-09-27T13:24:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.marriages.me.uk\/alwyn\/?page_id=2619"},"modified":"2017-02-22T19:43:46","modified_gmt":"2017-02-22T19:43:46","slug":"lighter","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.marriages.me.uk\/alwyn\/writing\/poetry\/lighter\/","title":{"rendered":"Lighter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"western\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial\"><span lang=\"en-GB\"><i>Look!<\/i><\/span><\/span> <span style=\"font-family: Arial\"><span lang=\"en-GB\">he said, flicking his thumb<br \/>\ndown over the tiny ratchet wheel.<br \/>\nI did, and as the flame rose up, he held<br \/>\nboth cigarette lighter and my attention<br \/>\nin his hand.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"western\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial\"><span lang=\"en-GB\"><i>Three hundred million years ago,<\/i><\/span><\/span> <span style=\"font-family: Arial\"><span lang=\"en-GB\">he said,<br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial\"><span lang=\"en-GB\"><i>sunlight absorbed by plants was trapped, dragged<br \/>\ndown and buried with them as they died, decayed<br \/>\nin darkness, were compacted holding tight<br \/>\nto sun-squandered energy and light.<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"western\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial\"><span lang=\"en-GB\"><i>Geological gestation through millennia<br \/>\nsqueezed plant matter into drip<br \/>\nof liquid gold. Somnolent ooze of oil<br \/>\nlay pregnant with power as human life evolved,<br \/>\nuntil our need or greed or ingenuity<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"western\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial\"><span lang=\"en-GB\"><i>released sun\u2019s ancient energy to serve<br \/>\nnew solipsistic purposes. Godlike,<br \/>\nwe lit the sunlight, combusted fossil fuels:<br \/>\nmethane, ethane, propane, butane,<br \/>\nsunshine re-born in power.<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"western\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial\"><span lang=\"en-GB\">Mesmerised by the unimaginably long time-span<br \/>\nand the tiny flickering flame in the darkening room,<br \/>\nmy mind turned inside out. <\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial\"><span lang=\"en-GB\"><i>We squander it<\/i><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial\"><span lang=\"en-GB\">, he said.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial\"><span lang=\"en-GB\"><i>We cannot replenish the supply, will leave<br \/>\nno reserves to warm or light those born too late.<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"western\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\"><span lang=\"en-GB\">Like this \u2026. <\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\"><span lang=\"en-GB\">He blew<\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial\"><span lang=\"en-GB\">the flame out, carefully released the catc<br \/>\nand, lighter poised, flint still, stretched out<br \/>\nthe silence as our eyes became<br \/>\naccustomed to the gloom.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Look! he said, flicking his thumb down over the tiny ratchet wheel. I did, and as the flame rose up, he held both cigarette lighter and my attention in his hand. Three hundred million years ago, he said, sunlight absorbed by plants was trapped, dragged down and buried with them&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"more-link-wrapper\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.marriages.me.uk\/alwyn\/writing\/poetry\/lighter\/\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Lighter<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":1982,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2619","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","entry"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marriages.me.uk\/alwyn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marriages.me.uk\/alwyn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marriages.me.uk\/alwyn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marriages.me.uk\/alwyn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marriages.me.uk\/alwyn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2619"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.marriages.me.uk\/alwyn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2619\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2790,"href":"https:\/\/www.marriages.me.uk\/alwyn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2619\/revisions\/2790"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marriages.me.uk\/alwyn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marriages.me.uk\/alwyn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}