{"id":131,"date":"2011-01-13T17:28:55","date_gmt":"2011-01-13T17:28:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=131"},"modified":"2011-01-13T17:28:55","modified_gmt":"2011-01-13T17:28:55","slug":"michelle-mcgranes-pipistrelle-child","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/michelle-mcgranes-pipistrelle-child\/","title":{"rendered":"Michelle McGrane's Pipistrelle child"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pipistrelle<\/span>
 <\/span>
He had forgotten how to walk,<\/span>
the child they found roosting<\/span>
upside down in the cave depths,<\/span>
cauled in silence and darkness,<\/span>
arms folded across his chest.<\/span>
 <\/span>
For years he had gleaned beetles<\/span>
from the chamber floor, snaffled<\/span>
moths and mosquitoes in mid-air,<\/span>
lapped from the silted pool at twilight.<\/span>
 <\/span>
Startled by halogen beams,<\/span>
spelunkers' thudding boots,<\/span>
his family, roused from torpor,<\/span>
had abandoned its crevices, swarmed<\/span>
above the harnessed men,<\/span>
through the hibernaculum mouth<\/span>
and disappeared into the woods.<\/span>
 <\/span>
Now, monitored by behaviourists<\/span>
behind an observation pane,<\/span>
the boy huddles on a cot, his head<\/span>
against his knees, eyes closed,<\/span>
squeaking as if echolocation<\/span>
might guide him home. <\/span>



*Michelle McGrane<\/span>'s collection, <\/span>The Suitable Girl<\/span>, is forthcoming in the United Kingdom in January 2011. She lives in Johannesburg, South Africa, and blogs at <\/span>peony moon<\/a>.<\/span>
 <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pipistrelle He had forgotten how to walk,the child they found roostingupside down in the cave depths,cauled in silence and darkness,arms folded across his chest. For years he had gleaned beetlesfrom the chamber floor, snaffledmoths and mosquitoes in mid-air,lapped from the silted pool at twilight. Startled by halogen beams,spelunkers' thudding boots,his family, roused from torpor,had abandoned its crevices, swarmedabove […]<\/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-131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131","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=131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}