{"id":3427,"date":"2024-05-07T22:20:30","date_gmt":"2024-05-07T22:20:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/oxmag\/?page_id=3427"},"modified":"2024-05-07T22:20:30","modified_gmt":"2024-05-07T22:20:30","slug":"closing-time-by-ben-macnair","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/oxmag\/closing-time-by-ben-macnair\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Closing Time&#8221; by Ben Macnair"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<pre class=\"wp-block-verse\">It all started, when buskers were learning wonderwall,\nand we would meet up, for a night.\nStudents, learning about our subjects, hoping to break hearts,\nwhilst protecting their own.\nIndividuals, who by twists of fate, of time and geography\nknew each other when we were trying to be anyone else.\nOver lager and pretentious drinks that only the young can get away with,\nwe will sit and remember all of the teachers that we tried to forget,\nspreading Chinese whispers about other friends, knowing that the truth\nwas so much more boring..\n\nThe pub is decked in cheap tinsel,\nthe type that Woolworth\u2019s used to sell,\nand we realise that we no longer have that much in common,\nexcept for the past,\nand we all remember it differently.\nThe landlord rings the bell,\nthe old dog barks, and it is time to put another ritual to bed.\nSo, as we say goodbye, and walk out into our city,\nthe one that is so slowly dying,\nbecause that is what happens when councils\nput their ghosts ahead of their citizens,\nknowing that some of us will be back next year,\nand some of us won\u2019t,\nbecause that is what happens to friendships. \nThe Moon hangs thin in the air,\nthe darkness is dappled with diamonds,\nand once more, all of my school-friends are strangers. \n\n<\/pre>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:100px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Ben Macnair<\/strong> is an award-winning poet and playwright from Staffordshire in the United Kingdom. Follow him on Twitter @benmacnair<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It all started, when buskers were learning wonderwall, and we would meet up, for a night. Students, learning about our subjects, hoping to break hearts, whilst protecting their own. Individuals, who by twists of fate, of time and geography knew each other when we were trying to be anyone else. Over lager and pretentious drinks &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/oxmag\/closing-time-by-ben-macnair\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;&#8220;Closing Time&#8221; by Ben Macnair&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2310,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3427","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/oxmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/oxmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/oxmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/oxmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2310"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/oxmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/oxmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3427\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/oxmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}