<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
What\u2019s Wrong with David?<\/strong><\/p>\n David does the garden. Ever since the ramp, till now he\u2019s been the bees\u2019 knees, as I have, he gets bugger all, works straight through. wants to trim the heather. Now I know got the blade at the middle setting, no good there\u2019s couch grass and all sorts coming through. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Stuart Pickford<\/strong> is the recipient of an Eric Gregory Award. His first and only collection, The Basics<\/em>, was published by Redbeck Press (2002) and shortlisted for the Forward Best First Collection Prize. Stuart lives in Harrogate and teaches in a local comprehensive school.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What\u2019s Wrong with David? David does the garden. Ever since the ramp, I\u2019ve been keeping an eye, sometimes he says to me the grass is too short or too wet to be cut. To be fair, till now he\u2019s been the bees\u2019 knees, as I have, finding him jobs to do in […]<\/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-11026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11026","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=11026"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11026\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11029,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11026\/revisions\/11029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nI\u2019ve been keeping an eye, sometimes
\nhe says to me the grass is too short
\nor too wet to be cut. To be fair,<\/p>\n
\nfinding him jobs to do in winter: the leaves,
\nstuff in the greenhouse. He always has a coffee,
\nchocolate biscuits and a chat\u2014at Margaret\u2019s<\/p>\n
\nPay-wise, cash in hand, always a quid
\nabove the going rate. But last Tuesday,
\nhe turns his nose up at the lawn. Himself<\/p>\n
\nhe\u2019s dapper with his cropped Tom Jones beard
\nbut it\u2019s still in bloom. I wheel myself
\nround to the mower in the shed. Your David\u2019s<\/p>\n
\nfor this time of year when it grows a foot
\na week. And when he does cut it, he walks
\ntoo quick, just combing it flat. No wonder<\/p>\n
\nI\u2019m not having Margaret\u2019s looking plush
\nwhile mine looks shithouse. It might be his teeth,
\nall those front ones, they\u2019re not his own.<\/p>\n