{"id":13621,"date":"2017-04-05T00:01:34","date_gmt":"2017-04-05T05:01:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/?p=13621"},"modified":"2017-04-05T00:30:37","modified_gmt":"2017-04-05T05:30:37","slug":"the-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/archives\/13621","title":{"rendered":"The Water"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>washes over us, re-opens us<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ffffff\">_______<\/span>to greed: bottomless\u2014<br \/>\nendless and overwhelming<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ffffff\">_______<\/span>as a mother\u2019s love\u2014<\/p>\n<p>as milky-white and sustaining<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ffffff\">_______<\/span>as food: call it bread. Dough.<br \/>\nLucre. Omnipresent and therefore<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ffffff\">_______<\/span>as terrifying as God.<\/p>\n<p>God-like, those steering the ship<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ffffff\">_______<\/span>hover just beyond risk\u2014<br \/>\ntheir boats silver and white, gold<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ffffff\">_______<\/span>and green. Unbreakable vessels\u2014<\/p>\n<p>while nearby, mere mortals fill<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ffffff\">_______<\/span>with sheer stupefaction, and then<br \/>\nwine turns to vinegar. The seeing<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ffffff\">_______<\/span>grow blind once more. Those<\/p>\n<p>who walked now crawl, while each burn<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ffffff\">_______<\/span>on the sun\u2019s surface cracks open<br \/>\nand rages with a mile-high flame.<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ffffff\">_______<\/span>The waters they steer aren\u2019t murky<\/p>\n<p>like the lead-leached tap water<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ffffff\">_______<\/span>the children try, for years,<br \/>\nto drink. No, those captains<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ffffff\">_______<\/span>sail a sea as silent and clean<\/p>\n<p>as an infant\u2019s room. How peaceful<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ffffff\">_______<\/span>it is, how serene the knowledge<br \/>\nthat you\u2019ve done your part. Unflappable<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ffffff\">_______<\/span>employee, we value<\/p>\n<p>your contributions. Surely you<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ffffff\">_______<\/span>don\u2019t know a thing, surely<br \/>\nyour hands are pristine even as, now,<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ffffff\">_______<\/span>you leap from the boat. You<\/p>\n<p>part the water cleanly<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ffffff\">_______<\/span>with each stroke, while waves<br \/>\nfirst open and then close<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ffffff\">_______<\/span>around you\u2014silent wake<\/p>\n<p>as you fight the murderous pull<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ffffff\">_______<\/span>filling the gap with your body\u2014<br \/>\nand all the while, the children remain<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ffffff\">_______<\/span>an abstraction to the men and women<\/p>\n<p>at the mast, turning the controls one way<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ffffff\">_______<\/span>or another; shifting this switch, or that.<\/p>\n<h6><a href=\"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/archives\/13494\">Dilruba Ahmed<\/a><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>washes over us, re-opens us _______to greed: bottomless\u2014 endless and overwhelming _______as a mother\u2019s love\u2014 as milky-white and sustaining _______as food: call it bread. Dough. Lucre. Omnipresent and therefore _______as terrifying as God. God-like, those steering the ship _______hover just beyond risk\u2014 their boats silver and white, gold _______and green. Unbreakable vessels\u2014 while nearby, mere [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":647,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[52],"tags":[25],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Jypy-3xH","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13621"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/647"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13621"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13627,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13621\/revisions\/13627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}