{"id":921,"date":"2010-12-10T11:11:12","date_gmt":"2010-12-10T11:11:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=921"},"modified":"2010-12-10T11:11:12","modified_gmt":"2010-12-10T11:11:12","slug":"roddy-lumsden-on-exactly-why-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/roddy-lumsden-on-exactly-why-not\/","title":{"rendered":"Roddy Lumsden on exactly why not"},"content":{"rendered":"

I Will Not Marry You<\/span>

                 because I frighten easily<\/span>
because I was born once bitten    unready for love<\/span>
and because your head is too small for your body<\/span>
and your nose <\/span>somewhat<\/span> big for your face<\/span>
and because when you speak a touch of Quechua<\/span>
all the brown eyes in the street roll sideways<\/span>
because you could throw a six at will<\/span>
making me feel like a wasp on sellotape    <\/span>

and because your hanging baskets are too yellow<\/span>
because you are less than galsy<\/span>
because together we'd write the book on studied idiocy<\/span>
and because your breasts are cobwebby piglets<\/span>
because I keep warm by hugging a room's corners<\/span>
and because my ankles are rusted Meccano<\/span>
because you seem the tenth Muse<\/span>
whose sisters keep all too quiet about her<\/span>

because my inner puritan still hisses<\/span>
because when you point out your enemies<\/span>
I sweat like a ram in a rainstorm<\/span>
because you employ words out of context<\/span>
 <\/span> anaesthesia       dovetail    drumlin<\/span>
and because I own no suit for you to sneer at<\/span>
because on your good days you are halfway<\/span>
to razzamatazz    halfway to Ragnar\u00f6k<\/span>

because my head is a dead weight<\/span>
with <\/span>1 TON<\/span> chalked on its dark side<\/span>
and your throat is the difference in meaning <\/span>
between<\/span> systemic<\/span> and <\/span>systematic<\/span>
because when I try to say <\/span>racecar<\/span>
the word <\/span>camel<\/span> drops from my mouth<\/span>
and because you write in that thick book of yours<\/span>
because fame has barely heard us mentioned<\/span>

because for you romance is way down a list<\/span>
beginning <\/span>stitching   filing   canoeing<\/span>
because of the white doves which bob and call<\/span>
nectar songs along your vivid shoulders<\/span>
because I'll learn to dance with someone<\/span>
steamier    <\/span>
        give me a warring cascade<\/span>
a pulsing weir        a purring cataract<\/span>
I'd dance with <\/span>her<\/span>    I'll marry one like <\/span>that<\/span>


<\/p>\n

*Roddy Lumsden<\/a> <\/span>has published five books of poetry. He lives in London and teaches for the Poetry School. He is Commissioning Editor for Salt Publishing. <\/span>Identity Parade<\/span>, his anthology of recent UK \/ Irish poetry was published in 2010.<\/span>
<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I Will Not Marry You                 because I frighten easilybecause I was born once bitten    unready for loveand because your head is too small for your bodyand your nose somewhat big for your faceand because when you speak a touch of Quechuaall the brown eyes in the street roll sidewaysbecause you could […]<\/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-921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/921","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=921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/921\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}