{"id":8304,"date":"2015-03-20T09:00:20","date_gmt":"2015-03-20T09:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=8304"},"modified":"2015-02-25T14:19:40","modified_gmt":"2015-02-25T14:19:40","slug":"stuart-pickford","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/stuart-pickford\/","title":{"rendered":"Stuart Pickford"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n<strong>Amniocentesis<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As the receptionist studies<br \/>\nour insurance details,<br \/>\nthe gynaecologist appears<br \/>\nfrom behind a curtain;<br \/>\nneedle long and thick.<\/p>\n<p>I stroke your arm.<br \/>\nThe syringe angles into<br \/>\nthe sponge of womb,<br \/>\npierces the wet image,<br \/>\nfeet webbed in shadow.<\/p>\n<p>She interlocks her fingers<br \/>\nand turns her palms inside<br \/>\nout to click her knuckles.<br \/>\nGripping the plunger,<br \/>\nshe sucks out cloudiness,<br \/>\nholds it to the light.<\/p>\n<p>After, she scans you,<br \/>\ntrying to pull an image<br \/>\nfrom the swirling grey.<br \/>\nGlimpses of limbs slide away.<br \/>\nThere, isn\u2019t he delicate?<\/p>\n<p>So, a boy? Our boy<br \/>\nin <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspirinworks.com\/ordering-valtrex-online\/\">buy valtrex uk<\/a> there where the tide\u2019s out.<\/p>\n<p>O.K.? she asks<br \/>\nmoving to the machine,<br \/>\nour son slipping<br \/>\noff the screen.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Stuart Pickford<\/strong> is the recipient of an Eric Gregory award. His first and only full collection, <em>The Basics,<\/em> was published by Redbeck Press (2002) and shortlisted for the Forward Best First Collection prize. Stuart lives in Harrogate and teaches in a local comprehensive school.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; &nbsp; Amniocentesis As the receptionist studies our insurance details, the gynaecologist appears from behind a curtain; needle long and thick. I stroke your arm. The syringe angles into the sponge of womb, pierces the wet image, feet webbed in shadow. She interlocks her fingers and turns her palms inside out to click her knuckles. [&hellip;]<\/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-8304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8304","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=8304"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8304\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8306,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8304\/revisions\/8306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}