{"id":443,"date":"2011-11-17T17:04:32","date_gmt":"2011-11-17T17:04:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=443"},"modified":"2011-11-17T17:04:32","modified_gmt":"2011-11-17T17:04:32","slug":"janette-ayachis-sea-rattle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/janette-ayachis-sea-rattle\/","title":{"rendered":"Janette Ayachi's 'Sea-Rattle'"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sea-Rattle<\/span>


The sound of the sea reaches our tenement <\/span>
                                  tonight<\/span>
tides curve their tails around towering <\/span>
                                  brickwork<\/span>
chasing pipework in circles, staining <\/span>
                                  windows<\/span>
with rims of salt, seeping in to rot the <\/span>
<\/font>                                  floorboards.<\/span><\/font>
The mice make boats out of bone china<\/span>
                                 teacups<\/span>
stream towards sewers licking their <\/span>
                                 whiskers<\/span>
the light in our room radiates, challenges<\/span>
                                  moonshine<\/span>
signals ghost ships, throbs like a endomorphic<\/span>
                                  heartbeat.<\/span>
I hear the hammering of planks in the<\/span>
                                  stairwell<\/span>
the gutteral pull of the seas sweeping<\/span>
                                  swell<\/span>
two  by two in minature diptychs the neighbours<\/span>
                                   escape<\/span>
abandoning hope and lifes nexus of<\/span>
                                  souvenirs<\/span>
for the bounty of blue, starlight and the promised<\/span>
                                     land.<\/span>
I bolt my doors as the paint starts to <\/span>
                                     peel<\/span>
the volgaraties of emulsion steer me away from<\/span>
                                      corners<\/span>
a flock of gulls crash their beaks against<\/span>
                                      glass<\/span>
and the sound keeps replaying like a foreboding<\/span>
                                      drumroll<\/span>
the sea rattles then roars, furniture soon<\/span>
                                      floats<\/span>
to the ceiling, like a spell water funnels up the <\/span>
                                      chimney<\/span>
lights sizzle then burn out, moons flag on the <\/span>
                                       horizon<\/span>
I start to wonder how long before everything is <\/span>
                                       engulfed<\/span>
the fumes are quick, eyes adjust to the <\/span>
                                      sting<\/span>
lungs inflate and learn to speak, I hold my<\/span>
                                       breath<\/span>
listen to their oscillations and swim towards the <\/span>
                                        sky.<\/p>\n


*Janette Ayachi<\/span> has a MSc in Creative Writing and her poetry has been widely published, her last publication was in New Writing Scotland 29<\/span>.  Red Squirrel will publish her pamphlet A Choir of Ghosts<\/span> this year, and her first full book collection in January.
<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sea-RattleThe sound of the sea reaches our tenement                                   tonighttides curve their tails around towering                                   brickworkchasing pipework in circles, staining                                   windowswith rims of salt, seeping in to rot the                                   floorboards.The mice make boats out of bone china                                 teacupsstream towards sewers licking their                                  whiskersthe light in our room radiates, challenges                                  moonshinesignals ghost […]<\/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-443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443","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=443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}