Temporary Accommodation<\/strong><\/p>\n She crouches in the crawl space waits in the small, dry hollow moves like smoke, He is watching when she appears. In a blink, hunkering over a dead pigeon coming undone She snarfles up the soft, unravelling coils, He pulls the curtains closed he draws the fox cavorting around landmarks And on the bare plaster of his bedroom wall running free in the mountains and forests of home.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Claire Allen<\/a> lives in London where she teaches literature & creative writing. Her first novel, The Mountain of Light, was published by Hodder Headline Review in 2004; her second, Protection, in 2007. Her poetry has been published in The Reader Magazine and twice shortlisted for the Bridport Prize.<\/p>\n Claire Allen<\/a> was shortlisted for the 2016 Flambard Poetry Prize<\/a>. An anthology featuring more poems by 2016’s prizewinners is available here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Temporary Accommodation She crouches in the crawl space underneath some plywood half-fallen against a muddle of abandoned breezeblocks, waits in the small, dry hollow her…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2405,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[508,422],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2422"}],"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=2422"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2422\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2423,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2422\/revisions\/2423"}],"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=2422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nunderneath some plywood half-fallen
\nagainst a muddle of abandoned breezeblocks,<\/p>\n
\nher short tenancy has rubbed out of the earth,
\nemerging only after the first luminous quiver of dusk,<\/p>\n
\nher ink-gloved, hairpin steps meticulous, untraceable,
\nleaving no print behind in the hardening concrete
\nthat clamps the earth inside its damp, mineral smell.<\/p>\n
\na stop-frame. Suddenly there,
\npared down to the nub of her necessity,<\/p>\n
\nin the road like knitting. Haunches low to the ground,
\nshoulder blades pushing up under her skin like stubs of wings.<\/p>\n
\ndelicately crunches the bloody needle of exposed spine,
\nits neat row of stitches. Moves on.<\/p>\n
\nand writes another letter to the daughter he has missed
\nfor five months. In the margins of each page<\/p>\n
\nhe has only seen in pictures:
\nBig Ben, Tower Bridge, The London Eye.<\/p>\n
\nher outline again, scratched in spent matches:
\nhis touchstone in this hungry city,<\/p>\n