{"id":18215,"date":"2019-01-05T16:01:10","date_gmt":"2019-01-05T16:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=18215"},"modified":"2020-12-09T15:32:51","modified_gmt":"2020-12-09T15:32:51","slug":"catherine-ayres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/catherine-ayres\/","title":{"rendered":"Catherine Ayres"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n<strong>Christmas Eve tea<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>5 o\u2019clock.<br \/>\nLight silvers the sill.<br \/>\nThis is the season of curious moons,<br \/>\nwhen we\u2019re lost in the velvet of ourselves,<br \/>\nundreaming the deep nights\u2028 between tomorrow and the past.<\/p>\n<p>Rooms flower slowly, like stars.<\/p>\n<p>Here are steep steps,<br \/>\na hexagon of doors,<br \/>\ntwo china dogs guarding<br \/>\nthe gas fire\u2019s slapped cheeks.<\/p>\n<p>I find the Smarties tube of tuppences.<br \/>\nI shake the Virgin so the Holy Water swirls.<br \/>\nI am allowed to sink my face<br \/>\ninto the Sunday furs.<\/p>\n<p>In the kitchen,<br \/>\na clutch of pinnied women<br \/>\nmakes the china clink.<\/p>\n<p>Cold meats,<br \/>\ntrifle,<br \/>\nsalad from a tin.<\/p>\n<p>This is not a photograph \u2013<br \/>\nit\u2019s the warm edge of the past<br \/>\nwhere the women I love<br \/>\nare still alive.<\/p>\n<p>I thought life would slot<br \/>\ninto a snug line<br \/>\nby the sink.<\/p>\n<p>My kitchen is neat and cold.<br \/>\nLight silvers the sill.<br \/>\nAt the window, stars.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n<strong>Catherine Ayres<\/strong> is a teacher from Northumberland. Her debut collection, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.indigodreams.co.uk\/catherine-ayres\/4593286356\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>Amazon<\/em><\/a>, was published in 2016 by Indigo Dreams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Christmas Eve tea 5 o\u2019clock. Light silvers the sill. This is the season of curious moons, when we\u2019re lost in the velvet of ourselves, undreaming the deep nights\u2028 between tomorrow and the past. Rooms flower slowly, like stars. Here are steep steps, a hexagon of doors, two china dogs guarding the gas [&hellip;]<\/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":[137],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2018-poetry-picks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18215","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=18215"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18220,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18215\/revisions\/18220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}