{"id":669,"date":"2010-05-10T10:49:20","date_gmt":"2010-05-10T10:49:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=669"},"modified":"2010-05-10T10:49:20","modified_gmt":"2010-05-10T10:49:20","slug":"valerie-laws-is-at-the-pathology-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/valerie-laws-is-at-the-pathology-museum\/","title":{"rendered":"Valerie Laws is at the pathology museum"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sirenomelia Baby<\/span>
   (foetal specimen, pathology museum)<\/span>
 <\/span>

This little mermaid is jarred; feels the moon tug<\/span>
At the kernel of fluid she floats in. Sealed<\/span>
So far from the sea, stranded in a tiny glass pool<\/span>
Beyond the highest tide, she holds hands spread<\/span>
Like seahorse fins up to her face, as if to scan<\/span>
A horizon she\u2019ll never see. Her eyes are wide,<\/span>
Avid for distance, for the swell of the ocean\u2019s<\/span>
Breathing, for cold depths to swim in, her sky<\/span>
A silver skin above. She gasps for salt water.<\/span>
 <\/span>
\u2018Syreniform.\u2019 A myth brought to brief life<\/span>
For a place in seaside freak shows, she floats<\/span>
As if poured from a genie\u2019s lamp. She tapers<\/span>
From the waist; legs, feet, fused into this blade<\/span>
Of a tail, no genitals, kidneys, no way out<\/span>
For the milk she cried for. Born ephemeral<\/span>
As a damsel fly, this tiddler\u2019s a throwback<\/span>
To a time when we all swam; stranded<\/span>
By evolution, cut off from our true home.<\/span>
 <\/span>


* Valerie Laws<\/span> has written eight books and specialises in science\/poetry installations. Her current poetry project explores the science of dying, through residencies in Egypt, with Wellcome Trust, and currently at a London pathology museum and Newcastle University<\/span>
 <\/span>
<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sirenomelia Baby   (foetal specimen, pathology museum) This little mermaid is jarred; feels the moon tugAt the kernel of fluid she floats in. SealedSo far from the sea, stranded in a tiny glass poolBeyond the highest tide, she holds hands spreadLike seahorse fins up to her face, as if to scanA horizon she\u2019ll never see. Her eyes are […]<\/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-669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669","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=669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}