{"id":16240,"date":"2020-08-01T00:00:15","date_gmt":"2020-08-01T05:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/?p=16240"},"modified":"2020-07-31T23:55:03","modified_gmt":"2020-08-01T04:55:03","slug":"distracting-grief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/archives\/16240","title":{"rendered":"Distracting Grief"},"content":{"rendered":"

– After Kaveh Akbar<\/em><\/p>\n

Consider:
\nwhen is a room full?
\nHow many chairs are needed?
\nHow many people in relation
\nto square feet?<\/p>\n

Are rooms only full of people?
\nNo, a room could be full of tigers!
\nSo then tigers and people and chairs…<\/p>\n

i leave a full room, is it still full?<\/p>\n

Is a room full only when it is
\ntoo full for one
\nto move? Or when every seat is
\ntaken? Upon which condition, a room
\ncould not be full of only<\/em> chairs\u2014 their
\nvacancy is a gesture toward openness\u2014
\nso we\u2019re back to people and tigers.<\/p>\n

First, let me ask,
\nthere is a room full of people
\nand tigers, and the tigers
\neat all of the people. Does the room
\nstill contain the same
\nnumber of occupants?<\/p>\n

i give up negative space
\nin this counting:\u00a0 breath fumbles.
\nThough the porch is full of people,
\nit isn\u2019t quite, so it\u2019s quiet.<\/p>\n

Perhaps I ate a bad plum<\/em> the pre-devoured
\nhuman might make their case to a ticked-off
\nand hungry tiger.<\/p>\n

A fly raises its warm leg
\ntoward the small heat of a soft light.<\/p>\n

Before i told you that
\nthese tigers were ticked-off
\nand hungry, did we both
\nassume danger in the room?<\/p>\n

Does light fill a space?<\/p>\n

A fly, another fly, lands on a lit ceiling
\nand stands or sits upside down.<\/p>\n

And what of this pesky subject
\nof light? What burns to say; what
\ncan fill a room that remains empty?<\/p>\n

The lights in many rooms tick
\nme off: bug zappers that make
\ntoo much noise, the low-lights
\nover your casket that made you look alive.<\/p>\n

You just had your nails done last week
\nmy uncle tells me over and over
\nas he sweeps the same step again.<\/p>\n

i\u2019ve been wandering
\nthe dim rooms of my memory
\nsearching for the first day we met. Now<\/p>\n

i\u2019m distracting myself. They moved
\nyour body into the sanctuary where
\na boy lit a thurible. As the smoke rose,
\nthe smoke and a shaft of light become visible,
\neach making the other\u2019s presence known\u2014<\/p>\n

O Kathy, I\u2019m sorry I never came to visit.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

JONATHAN BURKHALTER<\/span><\/a><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

– After Kaveh Akbar Consider: when is a room full? How many chairs are needed? How many people in relation to square feet? Are rooms only full of people? No, a room could be full of tigers! So then tigers and people and chairs… i leave a full room, is it still full? Is a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2211,"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":[65],"tags":[25],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Jypy-4dW","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16240"}],"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\/2211"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16240"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16372,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16240\/revisions\/16372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}