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breathless<\/strong><\/p>\n graffiti shouts insults from walls by the chemist I stare at the pavement and I\u2019m late for the 8:22 but I had to fix the tap or attempt to and now my coccyx and rip my trousers and Annie from sales of liquorice and I just want to sit quietly at my desk and there\u2019s no time to order coffee for company on the journey and I need something like a wind-up alarm clock and prick-prick-pricks and the train\u2019s pulling in now and I\u2019m queuing politely and I\u2019m getting on and I\u2019m looking round and I\u2019m squashed against a woman with a pushchair and who brings a child on a crowded train at this time of day but I see the strap of my bag is caught they\u2019re getting off at the next stop and I brace myself to leave with them to avoid a scene so no one will spot me re-embarking and use mobile devices to alert the authorities escort me off the train in front of all these people <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ian Humphreys<\/strong> is studying for a Creative Writing MA at MMU. His work has appeared in magazines including Ambit, Butcher\u2019s Dog, Poetry News and Prole.<\/em> He is currently putting together his first pamphlet.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Note: first published in London Grip, Autumn 2015.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" breathless graffiti shouts insults from walls by the chemist its colours explode like flung bottles I stare at the pavement and I\u2019m late for the 8:22 to Manchester because I should have left home at 7:55 but I had to fix the tap or attempt to and now if I run […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","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-10893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10893","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\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10893"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10895,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10893\/revisions\/10895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nits colours explode like flung bottles<\/p>\n
\nto Manchester because I should have left home at 7:55<\/p>\n
\nif I run I could pratfall like last time and hurt<\/p>\n
\nwill cluck over me at lunch and her breath smells<\/p>\n
\nand not bother with chit-chat and it\u2019s now 8:17<\/p>\n
\nfrom the man who grunts or grab a gloompaper<\/p>\n
\nto occupy my mind because if I don\u2019t it ticks<\/p>\n
\nthe inside of my skull<\/p>\n
\nwhen some idiot pushes past and I smile<\/p>\n
\nfor an empty seat like that exists at rush hour<\/p>\n
\nand my head weighs watermelon fat<\/p>\n
\nand I pretend not to notice her or the kid<\/p>\n
\nin the wheels of the buggy and my inner-Tannoy says<\/p>\n
\nthey\u2019re getting off at the next stop<\/p>\n
\nthen jump back onto the next carriage along<\/p>\n
\nas they may determine I\u2019m acting suspiciously<\/p>\n
\nand guards at Stockport might actually<\/p>\n
\nand what will Annie think<\/p>\n