{"id":1440,"date":"2008-10-30T08:18:40","date_gmt":"2008-10-30T08:18:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=1440"},"modified":"2008-10-30T08:18:40","modified_gmt":"2008-10-30T08:18:40","slug":"helen-pletts-is-considering-relationships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/helen-pletts-is-considering-relationships\/","title":{"rendered":"Helen Pletts is considering relationships"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sellotape
 
 
<\/span>It's up to you whether you curl up on me and<\/span>
twist again;<\/span>
 <\/span>
taking so long to let me scrape my nail under your tail,<\/span>
wrapping up against me<\/span>
 <\/span>
leaving the sharp adhesive scent of you on my hands<\/span>
that gets stronger with every pull.<\/span>
 <\/span>
And stranger than this,<\/span>
even though I try to deftly cut you up into neat strips,<\/span>
 <\/span>
you want to hold on to me;<\/span>
every trace of me, becomes you<\/span>
 <\/span>
in your glistening strip, as you isolate and snatch my fingerprints,<\/span>
decoding me.<\/span><\/p>\n

~ ~ ~ ~ ~<\/p>\n

My name is Lena<\/span>

 <\/span>
My name is Lena.<\/span>
I'm the creases<\/span>
the iron leaves in your shirt,<\/span>
the odorous yellow of bleach<\/span>
in your bathroom.<\/span>
 <\/span>
Did you think those black bags<\/span>
tie themselves into knots at the top ?<\/span>
That only your cat<\/span>
licks the stainless mirror of his bowl ?<\/span>
 <\/span>
I'm the brush<\/span>
on the back of your fortune-dog;<\/span>
(well, it's a fortune to me)<\/span>
the one I sleepover for<\/span>
when you go away;<\/span>
the one who notices me.<\/span>
 <\/span>
Did I smuggle myself over the borders<\/span>
on the floor of a taxi ?<\/span>
(You never asked)<\/span>
Others do you know.<\/span>
No permit. No home.<\/span>
Only yours.<\/span>
I keep it beautifully<\/span>
don't you think ?<\/span>


* Regular IS&T contributor <\/span><\/font>Helen Pletts was born in the UK but has lived in Prague in the Czech Republic for the past five years.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sellotape  It's up to you whether you curl up on me andtwist again; taking so long to let me scrape my nail under your tail,wrapping up against me leaving the sharp adhesive scent of you on my handsthat gets stronger with every pull. And stranger than this,even though I try to deftly cut you up into neat strips, you want […]<\/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-1440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1440","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=1440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1440\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}