{"id":887,"date":"2010-11-17T10:31:04","date_gmt":"2010-11-17T10:31:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=887"},"modified":"2010-11-17T10:31:04","modified_gmt":"2010-11-17T10:31:04","slug":"julia-bird-gives-voice-to-the-queens-guinea-pig","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/julia-bird-gives-voice-to-the-queens-guinea-pig\/","title":{"rendered":"Julia Bird gives voice to the Queen's guinea pig"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elizabeth\u2019s Guinea Pig<\/span>
 <\/span>
Madam, a diversion the courtier says<\/span>
and scoops me, not unkindly, from the basket.<\/span>
You know me: a bean-bag with petal feet<\/span>
which flower hot or cold depending on the mood,<\/span>
fur whirled in a double crown<\/span>
on my brushwood-coloured rump. I'm on her lap – <\/span>
a stiff skirt on which pearls grow like clover<\/span>
so naturally I eat. Alert to looming shadows,<\/span>
I forget to be alert and soon am wholly gone.<\/span>
A purring daze, blood-heat release –<\/span>
it doesn't matter. I'm passed on, not unkindly, <\/span>
to the cook's daughter. The day before, <\/span>
the day after, it\u2019s my turn<\/span>
to be the gift again, or be the queen.<\/span>
<\/p>\n



*Julia Bird<\/span><\/a> grew up in Gloucestershire and now lives in London. She works for the Poetry School and as a freelance live literature producer. Her first collection <\/span>Hannah and the Monk<\/span> was published by Salt in 2008.<\/span>


Note: Elizabeth I was reputed to have kept guinea pigs<\/span>
 <\/span>
<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elizabeth\u2019s Guinea Pig Madam, a diversion the courtier saysand scoops me, not unkindly, from the basket.You know me: a bean-bag with petal feetwhich flower hot or cold depending on the mood,fur whirled in a double crownon my brushwood-coloured rump. I'm on her lap – a stiff skirt on which pearls grow like cloverso naturally I eat. […]<\/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-887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887","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=887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}