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Beneath La Boisselle<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n An underground eye, dark<\/p>\n as a seabed,<\/p>\n a chalk wall made smooth by<\/p>\n the passing of men.<\/p>\n It does not blink at the crowding<\/p>\n shadows, fall of rock,<\/p>\n candle-flame\u2019s loss,<\/p>\n echo of running feet,<\/p>\n last outbreathing.<\/p>\n Two men, still, at the shaft\u2019s base.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n It does not blink at the lowering<\/p>\n of a canary in its cage, shouts<\/p>\n from above,<\/p>\n silence from the sap.<\/p>\n But, at the second bird\u2019s<\/p>\n two dying notes,<\/p>\n the eye hardens into flint.<\/p>\n Vanessa Gebbie<\/strong> is the author of one novel, two short story collections, editor of one text book, and writer of some poems. This is her website: www.vanessagebbie.com <\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Note: A team of military historians is studying a unique piece of First World War battleground at La Boisselle on the Somme, including an extensive complex of tunnels cut deep in in the chalk. \u00a0The bodies of at least thirty soldiers and tunnelers are known to rest beneath the surface. Further details can be found at www.laboisselleproject.com <\/a><\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Beneath La Boisselle An underground eye, dark as a seabed, a chalk wall made smooth by the passing of men. It does not blink at the crowding shadows, fall of rock, candle-flame\u2019s loss, echo of running feet, last outbreathing. Two men, still, at the shaft\u2019s base. It does not blink […]<\/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-4106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4106","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=4106"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4108,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4106\/revisions\/4108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/em><\/p>\n