<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
the cumquats of christmas past<\/strong><\/p>\n you hailed your taxi tuesday the eight\u2013\u2013<\/span> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ali Whitelock<\/strong>\u2019s poems have been published in several magazines and journals. Her memoir, poking seaweed with a stick\u2026<\/em>. was published to critical acclaim and her poetry collection, and my heart crumples like a coke can<\/em> will be released in 2018.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" the cumquats of christmas past you hailed your taxi tuesday the eight\u2013\u2013 eenth of february 2014 at four twenty seven p.m. i watched it approach swerve to the kerb its back doors fly open\u2013\u2013if this was death i saw it crouched behind the wheel & jaded as a night shift driver full of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"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],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2017-poetry-picks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15566","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15566"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15567,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15566\/revisions\/15567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\neenth of february 2014 at four twenty seven p.m.
\ni watched it approach swerve to the kerb
\nits back doors fly open\u2013\u2013if this was death i saw it
\ncrouched behind the wheel & jaded as a night
\nshift driver full of red bull & no doz & cheap 7\/11
\ncoffee ten thousand cigarette butts spewing
\nfrom its ashtray\u2019s filthy mouth
\nthe driver bundled you in\u2013\u2013no fanfare<\/span>
\nno prayers no bach cantata sung in sotto voce
\nthat might accompany you on the fresh black
\ntarmac of your new road ahead\u2013\u2013& nothing
\nsoft for you to lay your head on
\njust a cracked vinyl seat stale cigarette<\/span>
\nsmoke a strawberry scented christmas tree jiggling
\nlike a tea bag from the rear view mirror. i lay my
\nhand on yours leaned in whispered something like
\ni\u2019m sorry made sure your pyjama sleeves were clear
\nof the door before pressing it closed as the first
\nbubbles of fermenting sadness rose in me<\/span>
\nand i forced them down like cumquats into a jar
\nfilled with brandy in preparation for christmas
\nwhich was still ten months away & for weeks i kept
\ncramming till the skins of my cumquats tore
\ntheir flesh bled out & you could no longer
\ntell where one cumquat ended & another
\nbegan
\n& when finally christmas came i half<\/span>
\ndecked my halls whispered infrasonic compliments
\nof the season too low even for a passing whale hung
\nempty stockings from the mantle their gaping mouths
\nspeechless by the un-kindled fire & when finally
\nlunch was served & those of us left were gathered over
\nturkey & ham i took my jar of preserved cumquats
\nfrom the dark of my pantry, made my way around
\nthe table & heaped everyone\u2019s plate with a side of my
\ncompressed orange grief.<\/span><\/p>\n