{"id":9314,"date":"2020-08-28T23:59:36","date_gmt":"2020-08-28T23:59:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ondrocks2000.com\/standpoint\/?p=9314"},"modified":"2026-08-27T04:07:52","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T04:07:52","slug":"the-overshoot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ondrocks2000.com\/standpoint\/2020\/08\/28\/the-overshoot\/","title":{"rendered":"The Overshoot"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>I\u2019m not heading west!\u00a0<\/i>you\u2019d yelled at the hitchhiker from the<br \/>\n<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0open sedan \u2014 though you certainly are \u2014<br \/>\n<span class=\"s1\">before crashing the gate and overshooting the junction, and<br \/>\n<\/span><span class=\"s1\">\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0now look at you. Stalling and stalling on the tracks<br \/>\n<\/span>while the train does what trains do, \u2018bears down\u2019, while<br \/>\n<span class=\"s1\">\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0howling for you to move<br \/>\n<\/span><span class=\"s1\">though for some reason never actually braking. Nor it seems<br \/>\n<\/span><span class=\"s1\">\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0had you; then you remember<br \/>\n<\/span>almost all reported brake failure turns out to be some damn<br \/>\nfool inadvertently pumping the accelerator.<br \/>\nYou look down at your own feet. Great. Then you instantly<br \/>\n<span class=\"s1\">\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0calculate:\u00a0<i>OK. The seatbelt could be a faff<br \/>\n<\/i><\/span><span class=\"s1\"><i>and the door might jam, but all told, no \u2014 I\u2019ve a good five or six<br \/>\n<\/i><\/span><span class=\"s1\"><i>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0seconds to get myself out the door<br \/>\n<\/i><\/span><i>and I only need three or four max, and the clock runs like<br \/>\n<\/i><i>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0treacle at times like this, so my chances are decent;<br \/>\n<\/i><i>but . . . Ah to hell. It\u2019s comfortable here, and it feels like<br \/>\n<\/i><i>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0someone\u2019s taking an actual interest for once<br \/>\n<\/i><span class=\"s1\"><i>and besides, I am already finished. While I might have two or<br \/>\n<\/i><\/span><i>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0three books left in me the chances are it\u2019s the same one again,<br \/>\n<\/i><i>that one about death, doubles and the void, and I can\u2019t take<br \/>\n<\/i><i>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0another school visit where the kids<br \/>\n<\/i><i>are asking me about existential nihilism for their exams, and<br \/>\n<\/i><i>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0lord knows this will be over quick<br \/>\n<\/i><i>unlike the death I know is likely bound for me, the one creaking<br \/>\n<\/i><i>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0along the track like a hand-lever dandy horse,<br \/>\n<\/i><span class=\"s1\"><i>the one my father pleaded he be spared, until he couldn\u2019t<br \/>\n<\/i><\/span><i>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0remember how to plead.<br \/>\n<\/i><i>No, I think I\u2019ll sit tight. All in all, I\u2019d rather succumb to this<br \/>\n<\/i><i>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0great sudden bomb to the wing.<br \/>\n<\/i>But it doesn\u2019t come up. The car restarts at the next try; you<br \/>\nsort your feet out and you drive off<br \/>\nas if nothing had happened, as indeed it had, elated and<br \/>\ndisappointed beyond words<br \/>\n<span class=\"s1\">with barely a glance at the too-well-dressed figure under the<br \/>\n<\/span><span class=\"s1\">\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0trees, thumbing a ride as you gun it into the night.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<p class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><span class=\"s1\">Don Paterson\u2019s\u00a0<i>Zonal<\/i>\u00a0is published by Faber.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A poem from Zonal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9487,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[667],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ondrocks2000.com\/standpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ondrocks2000.com\/standpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ondrocks2000.com\/standpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ondrocks2000.com\/standpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ondrocks2000.com\/standpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9314"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ondrocks2000.com\/standpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9376,"href":"https:\/\/ondrocks2000.com\/standpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9314\/revisions\/9376"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ondrocks2000.com\/standpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ondrocks2000.com\/standpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ondrocks2000.com\/standpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ondrocks2000.com\/standpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}