{"id":1474,"date":"2008-11-20T10:42:22","date_gmt":"2008-11-20T10:42:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=1474"},"modified":"2008-11-20T10:42:22","modified_gmt":"2008-11-20T10:42:22","slug":"beverly-ellis-is-thinking-about-endangered-species","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/beverly-ellis-is-thinking-about-endangered-species\/","title":{"rendered":"Beverly Ellis is thinking about endangered species"},"content":{"rendered":"

Endangered Species<\/span>


Whatever became of the \u2018fancy man\u2019?<\/span>
The salesmen and under-managers in suits<\/span>
whose aftershave vied with toothpaste and tobacco, <\/span>
occasional consorts of women my mother disapproved of,<\/span>
who called round afternoons to see wives<\/span>
no better than they ought to be,<\/span>
those women who dared see-through blouses,<\/span>
dyed their hair to match a switch<\/span>
and had babydoll nighties on the line<\/span>
in the days when avocado was exotic,<\/span>
sex was like a shunting-yard<\/span>
and women didn\u2019t come.<\/span>


~ ~ ~ ~ ~<\/span>


A Dangerous Age<\/span>


Unlike me, you were always somebody:<\/span>
somebody\u2019s wife, somebody\u2019s mistress;<\/span>
the guitarist\u2019s girlfriend.<\/span>
Expelled from more than one exclusive school,<\/span>
you never bothered with exams or work,<\/span>
your life a work-in-progress.<\/span>
You sent your genes skittering towards tomorrow,<\/span>
but can\u2019t decide what to do today.<\/span>

Your body is a fever of hormone-dumping,<\/span>
fired up on high-octane HRT,<\/span>
core strengthened only by Pilates.<\/span>
Every frozen pea you suck: ten calories;<\/span>
every glass of Chardonnay: three units;<\/span>
each meal requiring four miles on a treadmill.<\/span>
You wonder why I don\u2019t just fast like you,<\/span>
that I can\u2019t be happy, size fourteen and fat.<\/span>

You live from man to man<\/span>
and, in between, your life disappears<\/span>
through the cracks in the pavement:<\/span>
a little gardening, a game of squash,<\/span>
a dog that\u2019s never walked.<\/span>
The landscaper might have loved you,<\/span>
but you couldn\u2019t tell him from Jack-the-Lad<\/span>
who fixed the Aga flue \u2013 badly.<\/span>

You ring me Saturday evenings <\/span>
to complain you\u2019re home alone again,<\/span>
although your daughter\u2019s just arrived with friends.<\/span>
That\u2019s when the appointments run out:<\/span>
the gym, the Botox doctor, two types of laser,<\/span>
spray tan, massage, day spa, nails and hair.<\/span>
What are you doing tonight? you ask me.  <\/span>
Writing?  You think I definitely can\u2019t be happy.<\/span>



* Bev Ellis is a refugee from the chalk-face and still jumps every time a bell rings, like a punch-drunk boxer. She writes about fractured lives, borderlines and rudeness, exploring women\u2019s experiences with an unflinching gaze. She has escaped from Lowestoft many times, but is invariably recaptured. She has a degree in English & American Literature from Warwick and taught English in Suffolk for fifteen years.<\/span>
<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Endangered SpeciesWhatever became of the \u2018fancy man\u2019?The salesmen and under-managers in suitswhose aftershave vied with toothpaste and tobacco, occasional consorts of women my mother disapproved of,who called round afternoons to see wivesno better than they ought to be,those women who dared see-through blouses,dyed their hair to match a switchand had babydoll nighties on the linein […]<\/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-1474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1474","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=1474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1474\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}