<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In the hospital bed my father sagged He started taking his meds again, As he grappled for control, the same old The next day he changed his T-shirt. arms and shoulders bones with skin too big- The next day he managed to shower, glowed brighter He was discharged after I drove home <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Josie Alford<\/strong> is a poet and event host with Hammer and Tongue Bristol. She fuses the techniques of spoken and written poetry. Her work ranges from the subtle nuance of dealing with loss to referencing pop culture. Glossop Ward In the hospital bed my father sagged and bulged in all the wrong places. He started taking his meds again, said the nebuliser smelled like French bakeries so I emptied Waitrose of its pastries. As he grappled for control, the same old violence glistened in his face but tired limbs […]<\/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-18266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18266","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=18266"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18266\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18340,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18266\/revisions\/18340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nGlossop Ward<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nand bulged in all the wrong places.<\/p>\n
\nsaid the nebuliser smelled like French bakeries
\nso I emptied Waitrose of its pastries.<\/p>\n
\nviolence glistened in his face but tired limbs
\nlike broken wings were too fragile to scare.<\/p>\n
\nI pulled the blue concertina curtains
\nand saw my father for the first time:<\/p>\n
\nbut belly and wrists swollen
\nfrom lack of trying.<\/p>\n
\nand made plans for moving closer,
\nhe promised to call.<\/p>\n
\nand it felt like something starting again.<\/p>\n
\n
\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"