<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Barnacle Geese<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n She sat all day outside the poultry tent<\/p>\n behind a bric-a-brac table<\/p>\n and sunglasses.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n She didn\u2019t notice, no, she didn\u2019t care<\/p>\n about the sunburn on her shoulders.<\/p>\n She quite liked the pain,<\/p>\n <\/p>\n something pink and visible<\/p>\n a singe, not a thud.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Everyone was being so nice.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The lady who had written,<\/p>\n with deepest sympathy,<\/p>\n gave her a long, close hug<\/p>\n during the ferret racing announcement.<\/p>\n The lady\u2019s watchstrap stung her sunburn<\/p>\n and she sobbed once, loudly and low.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Deb asked her to look after<\/p>\n her little boy, which was insensitive,<\/p>\n actually, thinking about it,<\/p>\n which she did after Deb came back<\/p>\n with an ice cream<\/p>\n to say thank you for looking after<\/p>\n her little boy<\/p>\n whose name she couldn\u2019t remember<\/p>\n when really he\u2019d been no trouble.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n She didn\u2019t ask what he was called,<\/p>\n just in case.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n She bit at the ice cream<\/p>\n in spite of sensitive teeth<\/p>\n and it dribbled from the sides of her mouth.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n She didn\u2019t notice, no, she didn\u2019t care<\/p>\n about brain freeze<\/p>\n or the ladies walking past<\/p>\n <\/p>\n who, deaf and numb, clucked<\/p>\n her son<\/p>\n cliff<\/p>\n Alum Bay<\/p>\n child of his own<\/p>\n how selfish<\/p>\n how very sad.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n She abandoned the bric-a-brac<\/p>\n with an honesty box<\/p>\n and a sign saying<\/p>\n <\/p>\n donations welcome,<\/p>\n sorry<\/p>\n <\/p>\n She ducked under the doorway<\/p>\n of the poultry tent and tugged<\/p>\n the flap over and closed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It was quiet and stuffy<\/p>\n and she sat down at the back,<\/p>\n her head on a cage,<\/p>\n a rosette cupping her cheek.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The goose inside didn\u2019t even hiss.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lily Blacksel\u00a0<\/strong>is a final year English with Creative Writing student at the University of Birmingham, with a dear love for the three Rs: Reading, Riting and Rperforming. IShe has just begun the poetry MfA at Columbia University, New York.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Barnacle Geese She sat all day outside the poultry tent behind a bric-a-brac table and sunglasses. She didn\u2019t notice, no, she didn\u2019t care about the sunburn on her shoulders. She quite liked the pain, something pink and visible a singe, not a thud. Everyone was being so […]<\/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":[139,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2015-poetry-picks","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9187","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=9187"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9443,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9187\/revisions\/9443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}