{"id":422,"date":"2011-10-26T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-10-26T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=422"},"modified":"2011-10-26T11:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-10-26T11:00:00","slug":"fiona-sinclairs-quiet-room","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/fiona-sinclairs-quiet-room\/","title":{"rendered":"Fiona Sinclair's 'Quiet Room'"},"content":{"rendered":"

The quiet room
 
<\/span>You wince under the waits\u2019 added load.<\/span>
Squashed seating arrangements anticipate<\/span>
breasts squeezed into scanners.<\/span>
We are blind to fresh flowers, pastel curtains and carpets.<\/span>
Receptionists and nurses maintain the default cheeriness<\/span>
of shopping channel presenters but<\/span>
fear runs amok amongst us <\/span>
strangling our instinct to chat.<\/span>
The pages of \u2018Hello\u2019 are turned with shaking hands,<\/span>
eyes skim bikini clad celebs,<\/span>
whilst we strain for a bustling nurse to pop her head<\/span>
around the door and sing your name.<\/span>
A girl in Sainsbury\u2019s uniform nuzzles <\/span>
her boyfriend\u2019s shoulder.<\/span>
It must be confusing for men,<\/span>
this switch from \u2018Carry On\u2019 fondling to<\/span>
reluctantly tracing a lump insidious as an IED.<\/span>
Afterwards, we watch other women liberated by<\/span>
\u2018Every thing\u2019s fine you can go\u2019<\/span>
But for one woman, the nurse in sotto voce voice,<\/span>
\u2018Would you come through to the quiet room?\u2019<\/span>
My eyes meet yours,<\/span>
we remember boxes of tissues and the private exit.<\/span>
15 minutes trudge by.<\/span>
\u2018For God\u2019s sake\u2019<\/span>
You re-cross legs, switching your coat about you,<\/span>
I sit with every muscle clenched.<\/span>
Discharged suddenly, we scurry from the building, high on relief.<\/span>
I slam the car door on the nurse with the valium voice<\/span>
and her open invitation for me to join her in \u2018that room\u2019.<\/span>
<\/span><\/span>




<\/font>*Fiona Sinclair<\/span>'s Dirty Laundry<\/a> is published by Koo Press.  She is a regular reviewer for IS&T.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The quiet room You wince under the waits\u2019 added load.Squashed seating arrangements anticipatebreasts squeezed into scanners.We are blind to fresh flowers, pastel curtains and carpets.Receptionists and nurses maintain the default cheerinessof shopping channel presenters butfear runs amok amongst us strangling our instinct to chat.The pages of \u2018Hello\u2019 are turned with shaking hands,eyes skim bikini clad celebs,whilst […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"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-422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}