{"id":1038,"date":"2007-08-06T13:26:00","date_gmt":"2007-08-06T13:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=1038"},"modified":"2007-08-06T13:26:00","modified_gmt":"2007-08-06T13:26:00","slug":"free-to-do-as-i-want-by-p-t-diep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/free-to-do-as-i-want-by-p-t-diep\/","title":{"rendered":"Free to do as I want by P-T Diep"},"content":{"rendered":"

Free to do as I want<\/span>

A year ago I burnt the list<\/span>
of all the things my parents, The Law<\/span>
and The Bible forbade.<\/span>

Released, I inhaled fresh thoughts<\/span>
and indulged in eating pudding<\/span>
in bed, three times before dinner,<\/span>

But the kids next door, knocked<\/span>
on my door, grinning like pumpkins<\/span>
with trick candles inside.<\/span>

Now I use candles in bed, their flames seem alive.<\/span>
Last night I left a present of candles<\/span>
for those noisy kids living next door.<\/span>

Today is the anniversary of freedom,<\/span>
I celebrate with champagne and<\/span>
alone, I enjoy my silence at last.<\/span>

My choices are heavy as chains<\/span>
smothering the windows, the glass<\/span>
like soot tainting the sun.<\/span>

Freedom smells of burnt skin<\/span>
and rope, as friction brands me<\/span>
smouldering with consequences.<\/span>

I chose freedom and now it hangs<\/span>
a neck-rope sighing, sliping<\/span>
through a noose from the ceiling.<\/span>

My mind is free of all boundaries<\/span>
but my body remains here floating<\/span>
above my favourite chair.<\/span>

The police knock on the door, knock<\/span>
so loudly the door splinters and breaks,<\/span>
they shout like the kids used to next door.<\/span>

On my chair is a note for the coroner,<\/span>
'Please NO post mortem, NO necropsy!'<\/span>
but of course, he is free to do as he wants.<\/span>


\u2022 Phuoc-Tan Diep is a regular contributor to IS&T. He says about this poem “This is a poem I wrote after reading Helen Ivory's <\/span>The Double Life of Clocks<\/span> in two days. Is this imitation? Is it the highest form of flattery?”<\/span>

Talking of Helen Ivory… her second collection The Dog in the Sky is available now from Bloodaxe Books www.bloodaxebooks.com\/personpage.asp?author=Helen+Ivory<\/a><\/span>
<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Free to do as I wantA year ago I burnt the listof all the things my parents, The Lawand The Bible forbade.Released, I inhaled fresh thoughtsand indulged in eating puddingin bed, three times before dinner,But the kids next door, knockedon my door, grinning like pumpkinswith trick candles inside.Now I use candles in bed, their flames […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1038\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}