{"id":15012,"date":"2018-12-01T01:36:23","date_gmt":"2018-12-01T07:36:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/?p=15012"},"modified":"2018-12-01T09:43:29","modified_gmt":"2018-12-01T15:43:29","slug":"on-raising-boys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/archives\/15012","title":{"rendered":"On Raising Boys"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mama, can I
\n<\/span><\/i>kiss you? <\/span><\/i>He asks,
\n<\/span>already reaching
\n<\/span>for whatever part of me
\n<\/span>is closest, easiest
\n<\/span>to grab. His toddler hands
\n<\/span>already mountains. His fingers
\n<\/span>rain. You can track
\n<\/span>the distance of a storm
\n<\/span>counting the seconds
\n<\/span>between thunder and light.
\n<\/span>You can smell it
\n<\/span>long before.
\n<\/span>How to teach him
\n<\/span>asking
\n<\/span>is not enough?
\n<\/span>Mama, kiss me,
\n<\/span><\/i>he demands,<\/span> hard<\/span><\/i>,
\n<\/span>wants me to press
\n<\/span>into each of his palms.
\n<\/span>Their cherry pits. My lips
\n<\/span>around his bones. Wants
\n<\/span>to do the same to mine.
\n<\/span>My hands a flooded
\n<\/span>river. An orchard. My hands
\n<\/span>not mine. <\/span>Eat me, <\/span><\/i>he says,
\n<\/span>I\u2019m a cookie<\/span><\/i>, and means
\n<\/span>sweetness, his fingers
\n<\/span>and belly, means:
\n<\/span>I just want love
\n<\/span>I do not have
\n<\/span>a language for<\/span>.
\n<\/span><\/i>His hands already
\n<\/span>squeezing tight
\n<\/span>my cheeks. My face
\n<\/span>between two mountains.
\n<\/span>How to teach him
\n<\/span>what consent
\n<\/span>should feel like?
\n<\/span>The seconds between
\n<\/span>thunder and light.
\n<\/span>A downpour. Hard,
\n<\/span>I kiss each
\n<\/span>of his knuckles.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach<\/a><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mama, can I kiss you? He asks, already reaching for whatever part of me is closest, easiest to grab. His toddler hands already mountains. His fingers rain. You can track the distance of a storm counting the seconds between thunder and light. You can smell it long before. How to teach him asking is not […]<\/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":[54],"tags":[25],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Jypy-3U8","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15012"}],"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=15012"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15012\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15062,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15012\/revisions\/15062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}