<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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Hanging the Mirror<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n I was thinking<\/p>\n that maybe this wasn\u2019t the way:<\/p>\n then you arrived, perfectly-equipped –<\/p>\n inflated hammer and rubber nails –<\/p>\n City and Guilds<\/em> poking<\/p>\n from the side-pocket of your overalls.<\/p>\n Like a safe-cracker<\/p>\n you tapped the wall for girth<\/p>\n and hidden passages, walked around<\/p>\n the mirror as though skirting a pond,<\/p>\n took off your shoes and stepped in,<\/p>\n cautiously at first, nervous of carp<\/p>\n and knotted reeds. Waded<\/p>\n up to your waist. \u2018Come in, it\u2019s lovely\u2019.<\/p>\n Never a swimmer, I demurred,<\/p>\n offered to hold your coat.<\/p>\n You walked until you were out<\/p>\n of your depth and all I could see<\/p>\n was the hammer in an outstretched hand.<\/p>\n Left it a day or so but you never came back.<\/p>\n Eventually, when I hung the mirror<\/p>\n I turned it sideways so you would be<\/p>\n closer to the bank.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Maurice Devitt<\/strong>: After a career in business he completed the Poetry Studies MA at Mater Dei in Dublin. He was recently placed third in The Cork Literary Review Manuscript Competition, and short-listed for the Over the Edge New Writer Award, Westport Arts Poetry Competition and The Doire Press International Chapbook Competition. During 2012 he was nominated for a Pushcart Prize, was runner-up in the Cork Literary Review Manuscript Competition and short-listed for the Listowel Writers\u2019 Week Poetry Collection Competition.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hanging the Mirror \u00a0 I was thinking that maybe this wasn\u2019t the way: then you arrived, perfectly-equipped – inflated hammer and rubber nails – City and Guilds poking from the side-pocket of your overalls. Like a safe-cracker you tapped the wall for girth and hidden passages, walked around the mirror as though […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","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-6859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6859","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=6859"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6859\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6861,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6859\/revisions\/6861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}