{"id":1306,"date":"2008-07-17T13:30:00","date_gmt":"2008-07-17T13:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=1306"},"modified":"2008-07-17T13:30:00","modified_gmt":"2008-07-17T13:30:00","slug":"new-prose-by-mandy-pannett","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/new-prose-by-mandy-pannett\/","title":{"rendered":"New prose by Mandy Pannett"},"content":{"rendered":"

PATINES <\/span>


She often walked along the waterfront in Venice. On a clear day she could see Belmont, high on its hill, mist-clad as usual like the fairy-tale it wasn\u2019t. There were more stalls in the market these days \u2013 packed with bodies and sweat. One stall was selling monkeys, gibbering chain-clad creatures like the one she\u2019d exchanged for the turquoise ring in the loving years. A horrible thing that gibbered and whimpered and chucked its wet faeces all over the place.  <\/span>

Sometimes she\u2019d bring Leah to this rat-hole, but it was such trouble keeping an eye on the child and so near the water as well. \u2018Leah\u2019 \u2013 she\u2019d never forget the row there\u2019d been when she\u2019d insisted on christening the baby with her own mother\u2019s name. \u2018A Jewish name,\u2019 her husband said and spat. His cronies, all as drunk as skunks, backed him up of course. Their wives just gave her funny looks, drawing close. As they always did.  Still, she got her way. She did, from time to time. <\/span>

Faintly, from the Jewish quarter, came the dreaded, mournful sound. Sunset with its prayers for recent dead.  \u2018Who is dead now?\u2019 she wondered, \u2018Is it him?\u2019  She wished it could be her. Runaway daughter, disgrace to her faith, thief \u2212 that was the bit that stuck in her throat \u2013 not the theft of the ducats but the ring, her mother\u2019s ring. Sold for that perishing ape. She\u2019d been told how her father had cursed her and wept. Well, all was a wilderness now. <\/span>

She shoved her way along the water front. Soon be dark and a full moon. <\/span>The floor of heaven<\/span>, Lorenzo had called it, in the loving years <\/span>Inlaid with patines of bright gold<\/span>. She shrugged. \u2018What heaven? What gold?\u2019 There\u2019d be none of that for her. <\/span>



\u2022 <\/span><\/font>A regular contributor to IS&T, Mandy Pannett runs an arts cafe, supports two local writing groups and
\nenjoys giving readings and running writing workshops. She has two
\npoetry collections from Oversteps Books \u2013 Bee Purple<\/span> and Frost Hollow<\/span>.<\/font>
<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PATINES She often walked along the waterfront in Venice. On a clear day she could see Belmont, high on its hill, mist-clad as usual like the fairy-tale it wasn\u2019t. There were more stalls in the market these days \u2013 packed with bodies and sweat. One stall was selling monkeys, gibbering chain-clad creatures like the one […]<\/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-1306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1306","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=1306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1306\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}