My daddy packed a pinch of Skoal Mint
\nsexier than most things I\u2019ve seen women do.<\/p>\n
Once, he offered me and my adolescent tongue
\na taste out of some old-school, parochial sense<\/p>\n
of education\u2014let the rod of experience thunder
\nloud and profound, where the lips might only<\/p>\n
whisper unintentional invitations. Like the clued-in
\nJunebug I was, I heard alarm bells blaring behind<\/p>\n
my eyes, blind with admiration. I decided,
\nsimply to watch and marvel at the way my daddy<\/p>\n
carried himself with so much swagger. The way
\nhe kept a Diet-Pepsi bottle in his back pocket<\/p>\n
stuffed with paper towels and dip spit\u2014as cool
\nas the coldest mink on the coatrack. I settled<\/p>\n
for a different red and black map of imitation\u2014
\na can of Jack Links Beef Chew. Fattened my lip<\/p>\n
with the finely ground meat and juice, slipped
\nthe faux-snuff into the back pocket of my baseball pants<\/p>\n
with scandalous intent, as if it was the plastic foil O
\nof a condom wrapper, leaning into my little secret\u2014<\/p>\n
the lead-up to my big joke, my wry smile and reveal.
\nMy daddy\u2019s vice as beautiful as a well-made blade\u2026<\/p>\n
The astringent mint making Jean\u2019s Nicot(ine) sing,
\nsetting the gums ablaze. He quit and un-quit<\/p>\n
and I learned what you can and can\u2019t make of a man.
\nBut one day, on the red clay of Black Miami,<\/p>\n
where the diamonds go mostly unused,
\nI got bit by a wasp while fielding groundballs.<\/p>\n
My father took the wet contents of his bottom lip
\nand pressed it to the bite, stemming the pain and swelling.<\/p>\n
I got to return to one of baseball\u2019s cherished
\nrhythmic routines\u2014catch, step, and pitch it to first.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
My daddy packed a pinch of Skoal Mint sexier than most things I\u2019ve seen women do. Once, he offered me and my adolescent tongue a taste out of some old-school, parochial sense of education\u2014let the rod of experience thunder loud and profound, where the lips might only whisper unintentional invitations. Like the clued-in Junebug I […]<\/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":[66],"tags":[25],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s6Jypy-snuff","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16520"}],"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=16520"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16520\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16521,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16520\/revisions\/16521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}