{"id":480,"date":"2011-12-30T17:03:02","date_gmt":"2011-12-30T17:03:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=480"},"modified":"2020-12-14T11:15:34","modified_gmt":"2020-12-14T11:15:34","slug":"the-sixth-day-of-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/the-sixth-day-of-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sixth Day of Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yule Tide<\/span>

The sky burns trotter pink, <\/span>
bladder blue, a skein <\/span>
of golden chicken skins<\/span>
pulled taut by giant needles.<\/span>

Up on the hill the grass grows <\/span>
as white as my hair, cold <\/span>
fistful and clumped. I <\/span>
stalk alone, muttering.<\/span>

Ancient witches cartwheel <\/span>
in energetic fury along <\/span>
the dry skyline, their shadow bones <\/span>
finger thin and twisting. <\/span>

I watch them: layer on layer <\/span>
of charcoal, grey and silt; <\/span>
rice paper fine, pirouetting <\/span>
against the setting sun.<\/span>


<\/font>* Charlotte Gann<\/span>'s The Long Woman<\/a> <\/span>was published recently by Pighog Press.  She's had work in The Rialto, The North<\/span> and Magma<\/span>, among others.<\/font>

<\/p>\n



Frost bite<\/span>

Hidden from ice scabbed windows <\/span>
I squat by the slats in the fence wrapped <\/span>
in Christmas paper \u2013<\/span>
 <\/span>
a hotchpotch of holly and ivy<\/span>
rolled, sellotaped, tied with ribbbon.<\/span>
Under its crackle breath drains<\/span>
 <\/span>
my blanched face, Siberian eyes latch shut <\/span>
to keep out the wind. I want to claw <\/span>
my way out, see birds swollen with snow <\/span>

swoop from the coast, hang around houses <\/span>
in huddles of feathers, trampling on roofs, <\/span>
gutters, grass; a whole assembly <\/span>
 <\/span>
grubbing for worms, stale bread, sultanas. <\/span>
They\u2019re too loud; I bury my ears in drifts.<\/span>
If you tear me open I\u2019ll bare, what\u2019s left<\/span>

is a torn upper lip hoisted like a sail,<\/span>
its gash all that remains of a smile.<\/span>
You tell me not to worry; spring will come,<\/span>
 <\/span>
fill my body with flames. But the evening <\/span>
is biting and I\u2019m unwrapping: my ivy wilting <\/span>
and the holly has hitched up her skirt and is<\/span>
 <\/span>
running as fast as she can down the garden.<\/span>



*Abegail Morley<\/a> <\/span>is guest poetry editor at <\/span>The New Writer<\/span>. Her collection <\/span>How to Pour Madness into a Teacup <\/span>(Cinnamon
\n 2009) was shortlisted for the Forward Prize  Best First Collection
\n(2010); the title poem was previously nominated for the Best Single
\nPoem. Her second collection <\/span>Snow Child<\/span> is published by Pindrop Press.<\/span>

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

Yule TideThe sky burns trotter pink, bladder blue, a skein of golden chicken skinspulled taut by giant needles.Up on the hill the grass grows as white as my hair, cold fistful and clumped. I stalk alone, muttering.Ancient witches cartwheel in energetic fury along the dry skyline, their shadow bones finger thin and twisting. I watch […]<\/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":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-twelve-days-of-christmas-2011"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480","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=480"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23928,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480\/revisions\/23928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}