<\/p>\n
We laughed, and you rolled them when I shaved your head as I showered you, when you unzipped a new breast; but when you smiled from the scanner now life is given <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Emma Baines<\/strong> has been writing for many years and published poetry in magazines and journals including The Lampeter Review, Roundyhouse, Cambria<\/em> and POEM<\/em>. In 2011, she edited and contributed to The Month had 32 Days<\/em>, published by Parthian and has read at festivals and events including the Laugharne Weekend. She also travelled to Ireland on the Coracle literary exchange. Emma has has translated work (from Welsh to English) for Menna Elfyn and her own writing has recently been included in installation by glass artist Linda Norris. This year, she has co-founded a writers group in Pembrokeshire and is currently facilitating poetry workshops to create films based on the Women of West Wales for Llangwm Literary Festival<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Vital Signs We laughed, in spite of the darkness, at the circles around your eyes. and you rolled them over hand-knitted hats in the chemo ward, to cover things we tried to hide. when I shaved your head and the last of your hair fell in your lap, you beamed. as I showered […]<\/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":[138,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2019-poetry-picks","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18865","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=18865"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19149,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18865\/revisions\/19149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nVital Signs<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nin spite of the darkness,
\nat the circles around your eyes.<\/p>\n
\nover hand-knitted hats
\nin the chemo ward,
\nto cover things we tried to hide.<\/p>\n
\nand the last of your hair
\nfell in your lap, you beamed.<\/p>\n
\nfresh from surgery,
\nand you carried your drain
\nin a floral bag; we joked.<\/p>\n
\npocketed a new you,
\nwe poked fun at all things false.<\/p>\n
\na truth was told:
\nhow your bones glow
\nis beyond the measure of science.<\/p>\n
\nits last chance to impress you,
\nfrom the bottom of us;
\nwe laugh.<\/p>\n