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In Chartres<\/strong><\/p>\n 1<\/p>\n Young girl on a bench <\/p>\n 2<\/p>\n A small waiter grapples <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Joe Cushnan<\/strong> is a freelance writer with a career in retailing behind him. His published work has included reviews, features and poetry in a wide range of media outlets.\u00a0 He has written several books of fun verse and the biography Stephen Boyd: From Belfast To Hollywood.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In Chartres 1 Young girl on a bench Lights a cigarette, Then, with her cigarette-holding hand, Tries to put on sunglasses And, with her camera-holding hand, Tries to position herself To take a photograph. She fumbles, She mumbles, She almost drops the glasses, Puts the cigarette in her mouth, Puts the camera […]<\/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-8690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8690","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=8690"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8690\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8692,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8690\/revisions\/8692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nLights a cigarette,
\nThen, with her cigarette-holding hand,
\nTries to put on sunglasses
\nAnd, with her camera-holding hand,
\nTries to position herself
\nTo take a photograph.
\nShe fumbles,
\nShe mumbles,
\nShe almost drops the glasses,
\nPuts the cigarette in her mouth,
\nPuts the camera on the bench,
\nTidies the glasses on her face
\nIn a moment of sense to avoid a mishap.
\nThen, finally, she takes the photo
\nAs a half-inch of ash drops onto her lap.<\/p>\n
\nTo raise a large table umbrella,
\nStruggles to reach high enough,
\nHis hand slips, au secours,
\nThe umbrella collapses towards its pole
\nAnd he is almost swallowed whole.<\/p>\n