{"id":17986,"date":"2018-12-19T08:00:45","date_gmt":"2018-12-19T08:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=17986"},"modified":"2018-12-13T15:56:12","modified_gmt":"2018-12-13T15:56:12","slug":"sharon-phillips-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/sharon-phillips-5\/","title":{"rendered":"Sharon Phillips"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<p><strong>Cola and Kvass<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Napoleon was here, the tour guide says.<br \/>\nDistant forests shine copper and gold;<br \/>\nthe churchyards have plastic bouquets<br \/>\non each grave; a skinhead in combats<br \/>\ngets off a bus, holding a bag from Lidl.<\/p>\n<p>We are crossing the European Plain,<br \/>\nwe read on our phones. A Stetson hangs<br \/>\ndown the tour guide&#8217;s back; he streams<br \/>\ntracks by Rag\u2019n\u2019Bone Man and Ugniavijas.<br \/>\nWillow leaves blink silver in the breeze.<\/p>\n<p>houses are tucked under corrugated roofs;<br \/>\nbrick churches have white stucco spires.<br \/>\nWe admire the name of the River Sesuvis;<br \/>\nat lunchtime we drink cola and kvass<br \/>\nwhile Johnny Cash sings Man in Black.<\/p>\n<p>Vapour trails cobweb the sky as we google<br \/>\nto-and-fro armies and empires. Tractors<br \/>\ngleam outside John Deere showrooms;<br \/>\na woman prays at a carved wooden cross.<br \/>\nNow we are free, the tour guide says.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><strong>Sharon Phillips<\/strong> is retired and lives on the Isle of Portland. Recent publication credits include\u00a0<i>Ink, Sweat\u00a0and Tears, Selcouth Station, Words for the Wild<\/i><i>\u00a0<\/i>and the Penteract Press\u2019s\u00a0<i>Concrete and Constraint\u00a0<\/i>anthology.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; &nbsp; Cola and Kvass Napoleon was here, the tour guide says. Distant forests shine copper and gold; the churchyards have plastic bouquets on each grave; a skinhead in combats gets off a bus, holding a bag from Lidl. We are crossing the European Plain, we read on our phones. A Stetson hangs down the [&hellip;]<\/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-17986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17986","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=17986"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17986\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17991,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17986\/revisions\/17991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}