{"id":15514,"date":"2019-08-01T01:00:21","date_gmt":"2019-08-01T06:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/?p=15514"},"modified":"2019-08-01T01:38:52","modified_gmt":"2019-08-01T06:38:52","slug":"church-can-be-a-word-for-anywhere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/archives\/15514","title":{"rendered":"Church can be a word for anywhere"},"content":{"rendered":"

an alley you skipped work to smoke in, a public fountain
\nyou sat before, begging yourself to change, or
\nany of the innumerable landscapes in whose grasp you were opened,
\nmade helpless by new light.
\naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa<\/span>And love, if these moments are enough
\nto bless a space so unremarkable as the room where I was born
\nbefore an audience of technicians and fluorescence, or
\nthe location where I will one day cease to exist,
\naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa<\/span>then why not
\nthe front seat of the Honda Civic I fell into every morning
\nnear-oblivious to the sun\u2019s ambush of Orion, to the layer of dust
\ncoating the dash like a light snow, the cup-holders filled with portraits
\nof politicians, etched in copper,
\naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa<\/span>and the caked sugar of jostled Cokes.
\nWhy not the deep blue frame, the cracked windshield I returned to
\nafter long days informing patients of their rights, families desperate
\nfor relief, or diagnosis, or for leaving,
\naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa<\/span>the thumb-worn steering wheel
\nI returned to, again, after dark, as though for an hour of prayer,
\nto hit the Tubby\u2019s drive-thru, or CVS for aloe, to circle the block
\nawash in my own unspeakable and solemn feelings amid the thudding
\nof Purple Rain <\/em>or Germfree Adolescents, <\/em>burning scraps of the past
\nto get from here to here
\naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa<\/span>until the days stretched into a single day,
\nand the transmission finally gave out on a block riddled
\nwith un-retrieved mail jutting out of boxes, with upended sidewalks,
\nspoiled food, and rumors of human bodies.
\naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa<\/span>I must return, again, to the scent
\nof air-conditioning fluid as it slowly leaks into the cabin, to the creak
\nof brake pads worn too thin, to the wheels passed down like an apology
\nback before this state of constant crisis found me, before I stopped
\ncalling it a crisis.
\naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa<\/span>This time, come with me: we\u2019ll tour the ruin,
\neven if the motor sounds like shit, or takes a couple tries to fire.
\nSee? Here is the food counter where Neil Young once jotted lyrics
\non a napkin, stranded by a broken van. Here is the overpass we idled by
\nwhile the storm engulfed it with debris. Here is the house we thought
\nwas ours to lose, here is the garden\u2014
\naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa<\/span>how we lost it is nothing new.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

ANDREW COLLARD<\/a><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

an alley you skipped work to smoke in, a public fountain you sat before, begging yourself to change, or any of the innumerable landscapes in whose grasp you were opened, made helpless by new light. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAnd love, if these moments are enough to bless a space so unremarkable as the room where I was born […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2041,"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":[59],"tags":[25],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Jypy-42e","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15514"}],"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\/2041"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15514"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15514\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15517,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15514\/revisions\/15517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}