<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Life-Raft<\/strong><\/p>\n The water\u2019s a cold gasp The drag of boots Your Mae West like a tart\u2019s embrace of exhaustion or injury. The raft\u2019s high sides catch the wind. A rope flung in your direction The third mate slips off the side. The life-raft gathers pace. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Caroline Davies<\/strong>\u2019 first collection Convoy<\/em><\/a> is published by Cinnamon Press.\u00a0 It was inspired by her grandfather, ‘Jim’ Honeybill. He was with the Blue Funnel line and served on M.V. Ajax during the Malta convoys. This is her blog.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Life-Raft The water\u2019s a cold gasp as you plunge feet first from the side of the ship. The drag of boots you\u2019d not thought to remove never part of the drill. Your Mae West like a tart\u2019s embrace around your neck, but she\u2019ll keep you afloat in case of exhaustion or injury. […]<\/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-4908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4908","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=4908"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4911,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4908\/revisions\/4911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nas you plunge feet first
\nfrom the side of the ship.<\/p>\n
\nyou\u2019d not thought to remove
\nnever part of the drill.<\/p>\n
\naround your neck,
\nbut she\u2019ll keep you afloat in case<\/p>\n
\nThe six men on the life-raft
\nshout \u2018get a move on\u2019.<\/p>\n
\nYou splutter into front crawl.
\nHer wake churns as you pant behind.<\/p>\n
\nfalls short. A salt wave
\nsmacks you in the mouth.<\/p>\n
\nHis waist tied as he splashes
\ntowards you in ungainly doggy paddle.<\/p>\n
\nThey haul the third mate back.<\/p>\n