<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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The Path<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n My steps stutter in small paces,<\/p>\n keeping balance in case I stumble<\/p>\n and roll down and down<\/p>\n landing with a splash<\/p>\n under the green ironwork bridge.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a small stream<\/p>\n leading to pools that feed pools<\/p>\n draping silver shawls over<\/p>\n the edges, lingering waterfalls.<\/p>\n Paths are laden with last year\u2019s leaves,<\/p>\n I can see the trail on the opposite bank<\/p>\n where horse chestnuts have littered<\/p>\n empty wombs of cream lined spikes.<\/p>\n The woman\u2019s pale yellow gown<\/p>\n is plump and artfully reveals her<\/p>\n right breast. I don\u2019t notice at first,<\/p>\n my attention is drawn to the white terrier<\/p>\n snuffling under her hem,<\/p>\n lapping her bare feet.<\/p>\n In response to my face she speaks,<\/p>\n \u201cThis is Siggy\u201d<\/p>\n I wonder if she has named her breast<\/p>\n or is referring to the dog,<\/p>\n hoping and hoping she cannot read<\/p>\n the image of my lips pressed<\/p>\n to her rose-bud nipple.<\/p>\n She picks up her skirts out of the mud,<\/p>\n trudges after the excited animal.<\/p>\n I shake the pictures from my head<\/p>\n stride gracelessly on, beneath<\/p>\n fingers of willow brushing my hair,<\/p>\n crushing a stag beetle into earth.<\/p>\n The ducklings trail their mothers,<\/p>\n newly oiled and splashing pearls<\/p>\n of water over one another,<\/p>\n follow-my-leader bravery.<\/p>\n I look for the peacock flashes<\/p>\n that designate future drakes,<\/p>\n absent in these fleckled young,<\/p>\n once-eggs that slap, peck,<\/p>\n boldly push forward or wait<\/p>\n at the margins until, unnoticed,<\/p>\n they steal their chance then wait again.<\/p>\n The man startles me, jostling<\/p>\n along the narrow path, bumps my arm<\/p>\n far from calm, blue scarf flapping<\/p>\n and there\u2019s a little poison in his stare.<\/p>\n \u201cHave you seen my wife?\u201d<\/p>\n I give him my blankest canvas.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sue Spiers<\/strong> lives and works in Hampshire.\u00a0 She has a poem called Fanny Farts<\/em> included in the Bloodaxe anthology Hallelujah for 50ft Women<\/em> but she can no longer help her daughter with degree level maths homework.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Path My steps stutter in small paces, keeping balance in case I stumble and roll down and down landing with a splash under the green ironwork bridge. It\u2019s a small stream leading to pools that feed pools draping silver shawls over the edges, lingering waterfalls. Paths are laden with last […]<\/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-9154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9154","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=9154"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9156,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9154\/revisions\/9156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}