{"id":9845,"date":"2015-12-23T09:00:37","date_gmt":"2015-12-23T09:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=9845"},"modified":"2020-12-14T11:20:25","modified_gmt":"2020-12-14T11:20:25","slug":"on-the-first-day-of-chrismas-we-bring-you-james-parry-and-catherine-ayres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/on-the-first-day-of-chrismas-we-bring-you-james-parry-and-catherine-ayres\/","title":{"rendered":"On the First Day of Chrismas we bring you James Parris and Catherine Ayres"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Alchemist<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The house was strange without one.<br \/>\nCorners where it could be swelled<br \/>\ndaily in their emptiness<br \/>\nand threatened to topple the festivity.<\/p>\n<p>Contrary under her gaze, he determined<br \/>\nthat a squat bought thing just wouldn\u2019t do,<br \/>\nand, shedding skeptics,<br \/>\npicked me as acolyte for misadventure.<\/p>\n<p>And so in speckled overalls, like skins,<br \/>\ntreading dampness into itself,<br \/>\nwe left Crosby-carolling<br \/>\nfor the trees who shivered at garden\u2019s end<\/p>\n<p>and saw in hand and hand on trunk,<br \/>\nhe hoisted me into the twiggy innards<br \/>\nand spiced stench of sap<br \/>\nto amputate a branch or two or three<\/p>\n<p>that we might puzzle together<br \/>\nin counterfeit of Christmas.<br \/>\nMetal teeth chattered bark to pulp<br \/>\nuntil my knuckles roared.<\/p>\n<p>Then on the grass he laid our loot<br \/>\nand crouched and bent and sculpted,<br \/>\nrehearsing imperfect forms<br \/>\ngloveless, beneath the limbs\u2019 original,<\/p>\n<p>and twisting out an edifice, like origami<br \/>\npatterned from some secret<br \/>\nblueprint, invisible to me,<br \/>\nhe stood content over his design.<\/p>\n<p>Inside, we propped our patchwork nature,<br \/>\nboughs shot out like a mad star,<br \/>\nwhere he hoped it might not<br \/>\nshout its own lie loud enough<\/p>\n<p>for her to tear it all to pieces.<br \/>\nStill, she came, and stood, <a href=\"https:\/\/drdavidbrady.com\/tramadol-online\/\">tramadol online no rx<\/a> and, silent,<br \/>\ncircumspected for a hanging second.<br \/>\nAnd she smiled.<\/p>\n<p>From one angle it was almost a tree.<br \/>\nBut from every side his alchemy<br \/>\nnow seemed to warm the house,<br \/>\nfuller in its strangeness.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>James Parris<\/strong> writes from East London. He has just begun to turn his mind to poetry<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>The single woman and the lights<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>They\u2019re bunched in the bag like an addled brain.<br \/>\nLast Christmas it was easy: he shook them free,<br \/>\nor maybe it was the mulled wine, the thought of his hands.<br \/>\nNow each strung head is desperate, locked in a final kiss.<br \/>\nI spider them apart, an afternoon lost to unpicking,<br \/>\nset them straight as graves on the living room floor.<br \/>\nIt\u2019s dusk. I take them in my arms and we slow dance<br \/>\nround the tree. When they wince through the tinsel<br \/>\nmy eyes swell. These plucky buds. Another year.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Catherine Ayres<\/strong> lives and works in Northumberland. She has a pamphlet published by B<em>lack Light Engine Room<\/em> and a collection \u2013 <em>Amazon<\/em> \u2013 to be published by Indigo Dreams Publishing next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; The Alchemist The house was strange without one. Corners where it could be swelled daily in their emptiness and threatened to topple the festivity. Contrary under her gaze, he determined that a squat bought thing just wouldn\u2019t do, and, shedding skeptics, picked me as acolyte for misadventure. And so in speckled overalls, [&hellip;]<\/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":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-twelve-days-of-christmas-2015"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9845","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=9845"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9845\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23851,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9845\/revisions\/23851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}