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The East Wing\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n My footsteps echo across the marble floor<\/p>\n as I follow the tak tak of the caretaker\u2019s stick.<\/p>\n Above, the last of the evening light burns<\/p>\n in the cupola and I can just make out<\/p>\n the glass cases that jut from every wall.<\/p>\n We pass an iron cage of stuffed ducklings<\/p>\n who follow their mother across a Perspex sheet.<\/p>\n I peer inside but the caretaker grabs my elbow<\/p>\n and I trail in his wake of drivel and pricking steps<\/p>\n till we reach a pale statue at the end of the hall.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The caretaker turns and looks me in the eye<\/p>\n his voice is dry as breadcrumbs, thin as a draught:<\/p>\n \u2018Do you remember your promise not to touch?\u2019<\/p>\n I nod and he presses a button at the base of the plinth.<\/p>\n A glow spreads over the statue and it starts to revolve.<\/p>\n Her eyelids flicker open \u2013 forget-me-not blue<\/p>\n her breasts are pale lilies and her dress<\/p>\n is the soft cascade of a beech hedge fresh with leaf.<\/p>\n She holds out her hand \u2013 I look round at the caretaker<\/p>\n he shakes his head and grasps his cane with a shiver<\/p>\n but she just smiles and I reach forward, it\u2019s like<\/p>\n slipping a hand into a summer river.<\/p>\n Something creaks behind me, slams shut:<\/p>\n the caretaker has drawn a knife from a classroom desk.<\/p>\n He advances, tilting it slowly from side to side,<\/p>\n I cast about me, wrench a torch from the wall<\/p>\n cleave the air, wave it across his path<\/p>\n drive him backwards, down the street of cages.<\/p>\n I trap him in a corner but he slips<\/p>\n out of a window.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I stare into the night,<\/p>\n scan the dim outlines of stump and boulder.<\/p>\n At last, I fasten the casement, feel the weight<\/p>\n of a clutch of keys that dangle at my belt,<\/p>\n smell the scent of lilies at my side.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Rowan Middleton<\/strong>\u2019s work has appeared in journals such as Acumen, The London Magazine and \u00a0THE SHOp<\/em>. He currently teaches Creative Writing at the University of Gloucestershire.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The East Wing\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 My footsteps echo across the marble floor as I follow the tak tak of the caretaker\u2019s stick. Above, the last of the evening light burns in the cupola and I can just make out the […]<\/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-9062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9062","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=9062"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9062\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9064,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9062\/revisions\/9064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}