{"id":454,"date":"2011-12-01T17:03:00","date_gmt":"2011-12-01T17:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=454"},"modified":"2011-12-01T17:03:00","modified_gmt":"2011-12-01T17:03:00","slug":"olivia-mccannons-argyle-street","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/olivia-mccannons-argyle-street\/","title":{"rendered":"Olivia McCannon's 'Argyle Street'"},"content":{"rendered":"

Argyle Street 1983<\/span>

The stone setts ripped from Argyle Street            <\/span>
Were dumped by the council for free<\/span>
As a heap of odd angles in our drive            <\/span>
On a day when heat stared you in the face.<\/span>

Clumps of tar \u2013 hard as the carapaces     <\/span>
Of cockroaches \u2013 sweated and oozed at the edges  <\/span>
Their soft beneaths asking to be scraped off     <\/span>
With a finger and lodge for ever under a nail.<\/span>

I climbed up on corners, stiff sandals sticking <\/span>
Air shimmered, a breeze flounced my dress    <\/span>
Clearing the last fadings of smells<\/span>
Packed down between cracks by wheels and feet            <\/span>

And now dislodged: lathered bits and leather            <\/span>
Salt, cattle, whisky, roker, sole, strong<\/span>
Soap, coal-dust, slops, stale beer \u2013 spit<\/span>
The passed-beneath-the-tarmac, fixed in black<\/span>

But with its surface rippling white, like the river.<\/span>




*Olivia McCannon<\/span> was born on Merseyside and is based in Harlesden, London and Belleville, Paris. Her poetry collection <\/span>Exactly My Own Length<\/span>  <\/a>(Carcanet\/Oxford Poets) and her translation of Balzac's <\/span>Old Man Goriot <\/a>(Penguin Classics) are published this year (2011).<\/span>
 <\/span>
<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Argyle Street 1983The stone setts ripped from Argyle Street            Were dumped by the council for freeAs a heap of odd angles in our drive            On a day when heat stared you in the face.Clumps of tar \u2013 hard as the carapaces     Of cockroaches \u2013 sweated and oozed at the edges […]<\/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-454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454","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=454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}