Soon no longer will I find you
\nas blown ash and bone
\nin flattened grasses where deer bed down<\/p>\n
but in the sun flare and flash that move
\nthrough this world as dapples
\non the backs of those we number in the field.<\/p>\n
Their bodies steam in the pre-dawn damp,
\nand when they rise they wear you in the mud
\nthatched to the v of their hooves<\/p>\n
and in the wet slicked to their fetlock\u2019s curl.
\nOn the slenderest of legs, they carry you
\npast what blurs into bramble and branch.<\/p>\n
Once you were the field and everything in it
\nthat grew while the sky, pearlescent
\nin its making and unmaking, slid over.<\/p>\n
Now you, who have already traveled
\nfrom one world to the next, must travel again
\nacross lowlands on the paws of the dog, on<\/p>\n
the hooves of the deer, docents of dirt
\neach divot recalls. They carry you
\ninto the reeds at the water\u2019s edge,<\/p>\n
silver tongue lapping the bank where they stand.
\nThey carry you beyond my cries.
\nClover fed, the deer walk through summer<\/p>\n
then winnowed by want, long miles,
\nthey walk from one year into two.
\nYou will never come back<\/p>\n
though my blood sings your name,
\nand the heart, ghost of a continent,
\nsounds the syllables sewn to its own.<\/p>\n
I will stand in the field clothed in silence.
\nTell me, Father, where should I look
\nwhen not even the rain can find you?<\/p>\n
Soon no longer will I find you as blown ash and bone in flattened grasses where deer bed down but in the sun flare and flash that move through this world as dapples on the backs of those we number in the field. Their bodies steam in the pre-dawn damp, and when they rise they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1704,"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":[57],"tags":[25],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Jypy-3QP","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14807"}],"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\/1704"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14807"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14807\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14808,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14807\/revisions\/14808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}