<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Look at That!<\/strong><\/p>\n ‘Look at that! And while you sob and sulk at the realisation, <\/p>\n Thomas McColl<\/strong> lives in London, and has had poems published in Envoi, Iota, Prole,\u00a0Incubator Journal\u00a0<\/em>and previously in IS&T<\/em>. His first full collection, Being With Me Will Help You Learn<\/em><\/a>, is available from Listen Softly London Press<\/em><\/a>. https:\/\/thomasmccoll.wordpress.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Look at That! ‘Look at that! a top hat on a tea pot,’ you shout, as we stop just a little too close to a china display in the shop and, with a swipe of your hand, you make a fat pot-headed Victorian gentleman involuntarily doff his hat, and a second later, you […]<\/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":[136,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2017-poetry-picks","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13712","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=13712"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13712\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14077,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13712\/revisions\/14077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\na top hat on a tea pot,’
\nyou shout,
\nas we stop just a little too close
\nto a china display in the shop
\nand, with a swipe of your hand,
\nyou make a fat pot-headed Victorian gentleman
\ninvoluntarily doff his hat,
\nand a second later,
\nyou realise why he doesn’t do that \u2013
\neven though he’s Victorian
\nand you’re a lady
\n(albeit a little madam) \u2013
\nwhen his hat
\n(which, foolishly,
\nhe’d had made
\nout of posh china
\nrather than plush silk)
\nsmashes into pieces on the floor.<\/p>\n
\nI pay the bill for the damage,
\nwhile keeping an eye out,
\nas I’m carrying you,
\nthat you don’t knock any
\nof the many
\nornate objects
\ncrowded round the till,
\nbut instead your damned dinky destructive digit
\nstarts prodding the top of my face,
\nand my invisible top hat
\n(which, foolishly,
\nI’d had made out of frayed nerves
\nrather than woven silk)
\nis once more pushed to the edge,
\nand once more
\n(just about)
\nremains in place.<\/p>\n