{"id":13787,"date":"2017-07-22T15:33:09","date_gmt":"2017-07-22T20:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/?p=13787"},"modified":"2017-07-31T23:07:28","modified_gmt":"2017-08-01T04:07:28","slug":"silhouettes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/archives\/13787","title":{"rendered":"Silhouettes"},"content":{"rendered":"

after Kara Walker <\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

An angel stands in a bowl of ice,<\/p>\n

the birds that bathed around her<\/p>\n

absent now or tucked together under eaves.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Because it is December in Virginia,<\/p>\n

some oaks are studded with mistletoe<\/p>\n

you can see if you see it<\/p>\n

from a distance, shape-shifting,<\/p>\n

clusters backlit by slanted light.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

One tree is dying of it<\/p>\n

behind the reconstructed gallows<\/p>\n

where we give our children history lessons.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I dream of shooting some down<\/p>\n

with one of my father\u2019s many guns,<\/p>\n

a great big crown of white berries<\/p>\n

and leaves so green they are black.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Advent calendar doors swing open.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A stray shows up at my mother\u2019s house,<\/p>\n

a head-shy pit the men,<\/p>\n

who will not allow her to keep it,<\/p>\n

run off, vowing worse if it returns.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Perhaps it is better to let it starve,<\/p>\n

belly full of worms and boot-cap bruises.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pit mixes are put down quickly at the pound.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Is there an incinerator?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A truck dumping broad-jawed mutts,<\/p>\n

limp as quilts, into the landfill?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

My cousin once bought a stripper he loved<\/p>\n

a cockatiel, its feathers the pale yellow<\/p>\n

of old-fashioned layettes.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I hope that bird is still alive somewhere,<\/p>\n

having been sold and resold<\/p>\n

the way the gold we wear today<\/p>\n

could have once been a medallion<\/p>\n

on Montezuma\u2019s chest,<\/p>\n

outliving us all, outliving the links<\/p>\n

in that girl\u2019s belly-chain<\/p>\n

and everyone tamed by Suboxone,<\/p>\n

our bodily miasma contained<\/p>\n

by an orderly world, a last dignity<\/p>\n

we won\u2019t give a damn about.<\/p>\n

ANNIE WOODFORD<\/a><\/p>\n
<\/h6>\n<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

after Kara Walker   An angel stands in a bowl of ice, the birds that bathed around her absent now or tucked together under eaves.   Because it is December in Virginia, some oaks are studded with mistletoe you can see if you see it from a distance, shape-shifting, clusters backlit by slanted light.   […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1425,"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":[53],"tags":[25],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Jypy-3An","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13787"}],"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\/1425"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13787"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13982,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13787\/revisions\/13982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}