<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Curse<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n The ache\u2019s an old friend,<\/p>\n hacking out a week<\/p>\n from every month.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sneering cramp<\/p>\n clings from neck<\/p>\n to knee; madness<\/p>\n <\/p>\n stalks the grey<\/p>\n week\u2019s waiting,<\/p>\n masks the world<\/p>\n <\/p>\n like a lead apron.<\/p>\n Feelings stray<\/p>\n to incongruous places,<\/p>\n <\/p>\n crumbling thoughts<\/p>\n sliding off in a<\/p>\n red stream.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This is our time<\/p>\n to surge – snagged<\/p>\n by this scarlet pause.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And now the monthly<\/p>\n crosses wobble closer,<\/p>\n further \u2013 soon<\/p>\n <\/p>\n the gaps between<\/p>\n will stretch to<\/p>\n fill the years.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n So bring it on,<\/p>\n you think. Can\u2019t wait.<\/p>\n But still you hear<\/p>\n <\/p>\n the cold dark radiator<\/p>\n groan as life<\/p>\n escapes.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Yorkshirewoman Louise Wilford<\/strong>\u00a0 is an English teacher and examiner. \u00a0She has had around 50 poems and short stories published in magazines including Popshots, Pushing Out The Boat <\/em>and Agenda<\/em>, and has won or been shortlisted for several competitions. \u00a0She is currently writing a children’s fantasy novel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Curse \u00a0 The ache\u2019s an old friend, hacking out a week from every month. Sneering cramp clings from neck to knee; madness stalks the grey week\u2019s waiting, masks the world like a lead apron. Feelings stray to incongruous places, crumbling thoughts sliding off in a red stream. This […]<\/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":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15837","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=15837"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15837\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16061,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15837\/revisions\/16061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}