{"id":532,"date":"2010-01-30T16:51:20","date_gmt":"2010-01-30T16:51:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=532"},"modified":"2010-01-30T16:51:20","modified_gmt":"2010-01-30T16:51:20","slug":"new-prose-from-shanta-everington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/new-prose-from-shanta-everington\/","title":{"rendered":"New prose from Shanta Everington"},"content":{"rendered":"

Old Dear<\/span>
 <\/span>
Hayley at the checkout looks through you.  Old Dear.<\/span>
Stodgy brown shirt barely concealing your lumpiness.<\/span>
Past your sell-by date, a package not worth opening.<\/span>
Recoils at the age spots on your crinkly hands as you offer<\/span>
a white loaf, tin of baked beans and a packet of eggs.<\/span>
 <\/span>
You'll have a ginger cat waiting on the chintz armchair,<\/span>
a pot with a knitted red and white cosy on the kitchen table;<\/span>
sip sweet sherry at Christmas, making everyone smile as<\/span>
you hitch up your frock and sing old tunes with that far away look.<\/span>
Corned beef sandwiches without the crusts for tea.  Grannie.<\/span>
 <\/span>
You think of Delilah: pert breasts streaked with sticky<\/span>
purple lipstick.  Free love.  Lean brown legs hanging over<\/span>
shoulders, wavy hair sticking to lips and eyes, hands fluttering<\/span>
like birds, your paisley skirt on the floor as the music thuds.<\/span>
Her face in the morning. Smudged and resplendent.<\/span>
 <\/span>
Two pounds thirty seven, please.  She stares impatiently<\/span>
at your cracked black leather purse, waiting for you to release<\/span>
the catch and fiddle about for your five pound note. As you bend,<\/span>
feeling the arthritis in your hips again, your heart-shaped<\/span>
tattoo peeps out below your collarbone and winks.<\/span>
 <\/span>
 <\/span>
* Shanta Everington<\/span> is the author of novels \u2013 <\/span>Marilyn and Me<\/span> (Cinnamon Press) and <\/span>Give Me a Sign<\/span> (Flame Books) \u2013 short fiction and poetry. www.shantaeverington.co.uk<\/a><\/span>

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

Old Dear Hayley at the checkout looks through you.  Old Dear.Stodgy brown shirt barely concealing your lumpiness.Past your sell-by date, a package not worth opening.Recoils at the age spots on your crinkly hands as you offera white loaf, tin of baked beans and a packet of eggs. You'll have a ginger cat waiting on the chintz armchair,a […]<\/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-532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532","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=532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}