{"id":1235,"date":"2008-04-30T08:38:00","date_gmt":"2008-04-30T08:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=1235"},"modified":"2008-04-30T08:38:00","modified_gmt":"2008-04-30T08:38:00","slug":"two-pieces-by-deborah-bates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/two-pieces-by-deborah-bates\/","title":{"rendered":"Two pieces by Deborah Bates"},"content":{"rendered":"

white ink (07134 258796)<\/span>


there it sat – the numerical love note written on a napkin.<\/span>
never had a 3 or a 7 shined so bright.  even to a magpie.<\/span>
the 0 swirled like a whirlpool of disappointment, while the<\/span>
winking eye of the number 9 mischievously giggled at<\/span>
her misfortune.<\/span>

funnily enough, the symmetry of 8 mirrored her<\/span>
enviable hourglass figure, but this was not <\/span>
enough to make him come.  <\/span>
4 sugars dove into her latte, whilst the number 1 stirrer<\/span>
rippled through the foamy ceiling of her coffee.<\/span>
Evelyn had never much cared for the 2 step, but she would<\/span>
gladly perform it with the boy.<\/span>

6o'clock came and went, as did the regulars.<\/span>
Tommy and Jane disappeared like the bacon does from<\/span>
Tommy's plate.  (and sometimes even Jane's.)<\/span>
the fish hook of 5 had pierced her insides, at least<\/span>
the belly ache felt like it.  she slid down number 7 and<\/span>
hit its blunted door at the end.  rejection.<\/span>
<\/span>

~ ~ ~ ~ ~<\/span>


Pumpernickel Timeline<\/span>


The smell of sour kraut on your breath permeated the room,<\/span>
as your Budweiser belly came towards me –<\/span>
the iceberg threatening the titanic.<\/span>
Your fraying round the edges, old grey y-fronts<\/span>
are the opposite of an aphrodisiac;<\/span>
and the disappointment beneath them ever more so.<\/span>
The young girl of 1971 found you<\/span>
charismatic, and beguiling, like the ballerina ornament<\/span>
in my grandmother's front room, that I so<\/span>
longed to touch as a child.<\/span>
The woman of 1982 found you<\/span>
shaking with fear in the waiting room<\/span>
of the building that gave birth to my girls,<\/span>
yet still you were my second kidney.<\/span>

This year sees an old man, lethargic<\/span>
and unwilling to change.<\/span>
Beside him, a woman who would<\/span>
die before leaving.<\/span>
For better, for worse her vows read.<\/span>

Yellowish curtains that used to be white<\/span>
are drawn around me, still endeavouring to protect me<\/span>
after all this time.<\/span>
The bed slumps, groaning as your weight hollows it out,<\/span>
and I sigh as I get caught in the wave.<\/span>
You pick your Reader's Digest of choice and settle,<\/span>
as my Mills and Boon gets racy –<\/span>
The climax of my night.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Deborah Bates is studying for BA Hons Creative Writing and says her ambition is “to spend my life writing poetry bathed in the sunshine of Tucson”.
<\/span>
<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

white ink (07134 258796)there it sat – the numerical love note written on a napkin.never had a 3 or a 7 shined so bright.  even to a magpie.the 0 swirled like a whirlpool of disappointment, while thewinking eye of the number 9 mischievously giggled ather misfortune.funnily enough, the symmetry of 8 mirrored herenviable hourglass figure, […]<\/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-1235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1235","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=1235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1235\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}