{"id":1463,"date":"2008-11-13T22:27:17","date_gmt":"2008-11-13T22:27:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=1463"},"modified":"2008-11-13T22:27:17","modified_gmt":"2008-11-13T22:27:17","slug":"alan-girling-is-invisible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/alan-girling-is-invisible\/","title":{"rendered":"Alan Girling is invisible"},"content":{"rendered":"

in visibility<\/span>


in behind the wheel<\/span>
invisible<\/span>
inviolable<\/span>

no one sees<\/span>
me rub my crotch<\/span>
dig my nose<\/span>
inspect hair in the mirror<\/span>
pick filet-o-fish from teeth<\/span>
or take my hands<\/span>
from the wheel<\/span>
so as<\/span>
to blink<\/span>

no one hears<\/span>
me cough 'til my eyes water<\/span>
sneeze across the windshield<\/span>
mutter 'asshole' to taxis<\/span>
tailgating SUVs<\/span>
sing blowin' in the wind<\/span>
puff the magic dragon<\/span>
in full baritone or<\/span>
ear-rending falsetto<\/span>
while I change lanes<\/span>
get caught<\/span>
behind a semi<\/span>
and sigh<\/span>

no one knows<\/span>
the moment<\/span>
my eyes blur<\/span>
ribcage tightens<\/span>
nausea rises through my throat<\/span>
and the anvil on my chest<\/span>
drives me to the curb<\/span>
where I park<\/span>
                  sigh<\/span>
            blink<\/span>
     and die<\/span>

not even the guy<\/span>
who doesn't scrape<\/span>
the frost on the windows<\/span>
before he hitches me up<\/span>
attaches the brake lights<\/span>
for better visibility<\/span>
and tows<\/span>
me away<\/p>\n

* Alan Girling used to write short fiction. Now it's mainly poetry. However he has had a play produced and would be willing to write a novel if the right idea came along. He writes in Richmond, British Columbia
<\/span>
<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

in visibilityin behind the wheelinvisibleinviolableno one seesme rub my crotchdig my noseinspect hair in the mirrorpick filet-o-fish from teethor take my handsfrom the wheelso asto blinkno one hearsme cough 'til my eyes watersneeze across the windshieldmutter 'asshole' to taxistailgating SUVssing blowin' in the windpuff the magic dragonin full baritone orear-rending falsettowhile I change lanesget caughtbehind […]<\/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-1463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1463","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=1463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1463\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}