{"id":2361,"date":"2012-04-30T17:47:21","date_gmt":"2012-04-30T17:47:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=2361"},"modified":"2012-05-04T16:18:50","modified_gmt":"2012-05-04T16:18:50","slug":"leila-segal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/leila-segal\/","title":{"rendered":"Leila Segal"},"content":{"rendered":"

No one will know<\/strong><\/p>\n

Woke up mouth-caught, suspended in solitude, not a muscle move. Fling open a window \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 breathe in the life outside.<\/p>\n

He is not a man.<\/p>\n

Presence \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0presence when you want absence. It is so hard to stay here sometimes.<\/p>\n

I see blurred green because he brings me my coffee; I do not know him and I am so grateful for this kindness. I did not even have to ask. You know, I did not even realise \u2013 crazy lady \u2013 that I was going to cry. Swept in the felt of my bed, nothing came but white.<\/p>\n

I want this puzzle to come falling down all around my head like snow;\u00a0I will be buried beneath.<\/p>\n

Slow quiet this morning. Still-moving. He has left; walked out into the dust in his coat with smoke blurring him about. Now I am suspended here. I am suspended in this day, blowing in-between.<\/p>\n

I will be lost in the day. No one will know.<\/p>\n

Everyone is in hood and scarves. I am only in thin. From a cold country I am. Meirav told me I am not wearing enough but I am from a cold country. In my country we heat our houses; here, I shiver in my coat at night, a fan blowing hot air on my tan-clad ankles until they burn. Meirav read my writing and she cried.<\/p>\n

All the world outside this window goes by speeded up, rushes around as if we are the only still point.<\/p>\n

He is not a man, his still-swept shoulders race over me and his still-stooped shoulders never had to stand tall and now they\u2019re falling down.<\/p>\n

I opened my window to take in the life outside.<\/p>\n

Who are these crowd of people in their puffa coats when I\u2019m only in a slip of a shirt? How is it that I have so few clothes? My suitcase was 20.9Kg in the end. \u2018You are lucky,\u2019 the woman at the check-in said.<\/p>\n

I left Meirav\u2019s house and walked down Ahad Ha\u2019am. I can endure. For so long like a camel without a drink. You know, you carry the cloud around you. You know that, don\u2019t you? You inhabit this place; you leave it when you choose.<\/p>\n

No one will know. I move completely silent in this world. This is why I write.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Leila Segal<\/strong>‘s Breathe: Stories from Cuba<\/em><\/a><\/span> is out now from Flipped Eye. Her prose is often experimental, exploring fragmentation and strangeness, and how language can be used to unify or drive apart. Read more at ” target=”_blank”>www.leilasegal.com<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No one will know Woke up mouth-caught, suspended in solitude, not a muscle move. Fling open a window \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 breathe in the life outside. He is not a man. Presence \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0presence when you want absence. It is so hard to stay here sometimes. I see blurred green because he brings me my coffee; I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","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-2361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2361","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=2361"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2367,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2361\/revisions\/2367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}