<\/p>\n
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Shave<\/strong><\/p>\n The backs of men’s necks When I was eighteen, Another summer, older, There will always be another summer. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ramona Herdman<\/strong>\u2019s collection Come what you wished for<\/em> was published by Eggbox in 2003. She won a place on the Poetry Trust Advanced Seminar 2011. She was longlisted for the Pighog Poetry School Pamphlet competition 2014. Twitter @ramonaherdman<\/p>\n Shave<\/em> was first published in The North<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Shave The backs of men’s necks queue on the Tube. Hot breath and the mustn’t of reaching to touch. Such a little inch of shared air to transgress. Sticky dress and long haul home to owned skin. When I was eighteen, my lover asked me to stand over him with little buzzing […]<\/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-8612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8612","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=8612"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8615,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8612\/revisions\/8615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nqueue on the Tube.
\nHot breath and the mustn’t
\nof reaching to touch. Such
\na little inch of shared air
\nto transgress. Sticky dress
\nand long haul home to owned skin.<\/p>\n
\nmy lover asked me to stand over him
\nwith little buzzing clippers, to stroke
\nthe hair off with their insect mouth.
\nI kissed all up that new tickle
\nof conquered skull, triumphant.
\nHe walked beside me shorn, marked mine.
\nMy thumb the first to smooth across, enjoy
\nthe bite of new-cut hair.<\/p>\n
\nand it\u2019s my father asking.
\nWidower, too ill to go out.
\nSuch uncomfortable trespass,
\nshudder and prickle,
\nto walk the clippers the way his second wife did,
\ncut paths over his small grey head.
\nI swept up after. I holstered the clippers
\nin the leatherette case and put them away
\nin the too-tidy bathroom of his last house.<\/p>\n
\nThis one, both of us in this dappled, dazzling bath,
\nI rest one heel
\nthen the other
\non your shoulder, lean back
\nand trust your razor
\ndown my leg, nuzzling
\nthe unseen back of my knee.<\/p>\n