<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Les Nymphes Aurore<\/strong><\/p>\n We have surrounded the house We stare through the lighted window Slit the skin at the back of the neck Hairs will loosen during cooking. Usually three pairs per serving are allowed.<\/p>\n But we are not greedy; we may be many We wait, gleaming <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Jane Lovell<\/strong> is the Poetry Society Stanza Rep for Warwickshire. She has had work published in a number of anthologies and journals including Agenda, Earthlines, Poetry Wales, Envoi, the North, Dark Mountain, Zoomorphic, Mslexia, New Welsh Review <\/em>and Ink, Sweat and Tears<\/em>. She won the Flambard Prize in 2015 and was recently shortlisted for the Basil Bunting Prize and the Wisehouse Poetry Award.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Les Nymphes Aurore We have surrounded the house of the French chef. He is inside skinning tarragon leaves from their stems, boiling vinegar, crushing peppercorns, grinding sea salt, dipping and licking his fat finger in the cream. We stare through the lighted window that frames his aproned bulk. On the hob, something […]<\/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-12423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12423","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=12423"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12424,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12423\/revisions\/12424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nof the French chef.
\nHe is inside skinning tarragon leaves
\nfrom their stems,
\nboiling vinegar, crushing peppercorns,
\ngrinding sea salt,
\ndipping and licking his fat finger
\nin the cream.<\/p>\n
\nthat frames his aproned bulk.
\nOn the hob, something bubbles and steams.
\nThe hair curls around his neck
\nas he stirs.<\/p>\n
\nand pull it apart.
\nCut the backbone so that the legs are still joined.
\nCut off the feet, skewer the legs and soak
\nuntil the flesh whitens and swells.
\nDry the legs and cook according to the recipe.<\/p>\n
\nThey will rise to the surface and be scooped off
\nin a scum of subcutaneous fat.<\/p>\n
\nbut the young still suck the soft strands
\nof marshweed and algae,
\nthe dripping fur of moss.
\nThey still kick for joy in the cold black water
\nof the mudpools.
\nThey are beautiful and sparkling and green…
\nles nymphes aurore!<\/p>\n
\nin carelessly-thrown kitchenlight.
\nWe are not greedy;
\none pair will suffice for tonight\u2019s meal.<\/p>\n