<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It all takes too long. Sunrise still sulks out of sight, Knelt in the straw, She lays it straight, Twenty miles away, She lays the lamb by the door, <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Carol J Forrester<\/strong> is a young writer posting stories and poems to her blog www.caroljforrester.com<\/a>. She\u2019s been featured at Ink Pantry<\/a> <\/em>and River Ram Press <\/em>and had two poems included in the dVerse <\/em>anthology Chiarscuro.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Newborn It all takes too long. Sheep too narrow, lamb too big and rain hammering on the tin roof scattering the quiet. Sunrise still sulks out of sight, out of mind. The farmyard a black mirror, midden cloaked in shadows until the security light catches on a fox scurrying for shelter. Knelt […]<\/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-18406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18406","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=18406"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18406\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18430,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18406\/revisions\/18430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nNewborn<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nSheep too narrow, lamb too big
\nand rain hammering on the tin roof
\nscattering the quiet.<\/p>\n
\nout of mind.
\nThe farmyard a black mirror,
\nmidden cloaked in shadows
\nuntil the security light catches
\non a fox scurrying for shelter.<\/p>\n
\nconcrete cold on her knees,
\nher breath is mist.
\nKnuckles tucked between
\nthe new-born\u2019s ankles
\nas she pulls it free.<\/p>\n
\nrubs a fistful of bedding
\nto its ribcage.
\nTries to scrub breath
\nback into its body.<\/p>\n
\nher own child will be sleeping.
\nHer husband\u2019s mother
\nholding her place
\nuntil Spring runs its course.<\/p>\n
\nnotes to call Bradshaw\u2019s
\nin the morning
\nand tries not to carry it home
\nto the empty room
\nwhere the cot is waiting.<\/p>\n