Taking my Echo<\/strong><\/p>\n He leaves me to undress, when the gown is torn, plumped on cotton pillows, My face to the wall, he asks, His young arm, spooning me to him where my nipple was.<\/p>\n He asks me to breathe deeply then Stop<\/em><\/p>\n don\u2019t breathe<\/em><\/p>\n don\u2019t<\/em><\/p>\n breathe<\/em><\/p>\n (I am underwater, lungs full)<\/p>\n Okay.<\/em><\/p>\n Breathe.<\/em><\/p>\n Normally.<\/em><\/p>\n Thanks.<\/em><\/p>\n He takes pictures of my heart; Claire Collison<\/a> is a writer, swimmer, teacher, and currently Artist in Residence at the Women’s Art Library, Claire’s poetry has appeared in Butcher’s Dog, New Boots and Pantisocracies, The Island Review, South Bank, Yorkshire Mix, The Compass, and Templar Anthology 2016. Her novel, Treading Water<\/em> was a finalist in the Dundee Book Prize. She received the first Max Reinhardt Literacy Award, and came second in the inaugural Resurgence Prize.<\/p>\n Claire Collison<\/a> was shortlisted for the 2016 Flambard Poetry Prize<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Taking my Echo He leaves me to undress, apologising when the gown is torn, lays me on my side, plumped on cotton pillows, smears my…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2405,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[504,422,9],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2404"}],"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=2404"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2417,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2404\/revisions\/2417"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\napologising<\/p>\n
\nlays me on my side,<\/p>\n
\nsmears my skin with jelly.<\/p>\n
\nAm I comfortable?<\/p>\n
\nis warm on my belly, supple<\/p>\n
\nout then stop breathing \u2013<\/p>\n
\nit gushes like an old twin tub.<\/p>\n