<\/p>\n
Two poems by the second-prize winner of the 2014 Flambard Poetry Prize, Kathleen Bainbridge:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Window<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Who could believe you came so close once \u2013 <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Four Pictures of Mary Ellen<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n My hair, if I let it, would be as white now *<\/p>\n I watch you set the kettle on the range, *<\/p>\n You gaze out in your formal sepia beauty, *<\/p>\n Tender among the ranks of Irish peasants Two poems by the second-prize winner of the 2014 Flambard Poetry Prize, Kathleen Bainbridge: Window Who could believe you came so…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2054,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[422,377],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1825"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1825"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1827,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1825\/revisions\/1827"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nkneeling on a white cotton dhurrie, four floors up,
\nholding your head to stop your thoughts from bolting,
\nfragments of fiddle tunes gusting up stairwells,
\nalong corridors, as people drift from room to room.
\nThat window there, open, invites the stars
\nto tell you whatever you choose will disappear,
\nswallowed down deep into the shadow
\nof a hemisphere in hiding. From below,
\na male voice floats to you in the Aeolian,
\ngroups of new-found friends hush their talk;
\nin the muffled warmth of a summer night,
\nfaraway traffic carries the currents of living
\nthat cross and part almost beyond your hearing.<\/p>\n
\nas yours, pinned at the nape in its bun
\nin the candlelit front room, my last view
\nof your profile, grave as a Roman matron.<\/p>\n
\nstir the coals, fetch the toasting fork
\nas I tack through sheets that sail the back lane,
\nracing to Mrs MacRae\u2019s for flatcake.<\/p>\n
\ncomposed and still beside your leaning groom
\nwhose eyes already seem to turn away
\nalong the path of faithlessness to come.<\/p>\n
\nthat bred you, dark hair brutally chopped
\nagainst vermin, your child\u2019s face haunts
\nits future, the small boots, the artless hope.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"