The paint is less shiny and more speckled
\nfrom the heat and sand and dusk and hurricanes
\nbrush. The stilts stretch
\ntheir knuckles, flexed forgotten rafters
\nholding baby shoes and pink umbrellas
\nand condom wrappers. The Rambler,
\nnamed by my grandfather, coined by my brother,
\nThe Shambler. The blue paint peeled down
\nfrom the under belly, long strips
\nof backwards fingernails barely pinned to the sidewall,
\nholding on for the next strong wind to knock us
\nand pickle what\u2019s left of the wicker furniture. The carpet
\nwarm from the inside gaze, the ceiling fan screwed in
\nby a large nail and the will of baby jesus. People die
\nfrom that, you know? It just goes flying off the wall and shreds
\neverything into little bits of like grain or something
\nif you\u2019re not careful, but shut up and go to sleep,
\nif you snore really loud you won\u2019t even hear
\nthe death creeping up on you so just go
\nto sleep and it\u2019ll be fine. The water line functions
\nin a mirror to the balding nature of our family dissension.
\nWe pulled out the hair plugs just to watch them
\nwash up next to the oil from that BP spill
\nthat no one talks about anymore. The house used to be a palace,
\nbut now we just pump
\nour gas and mind our own business
\nbecause we\u2019re good people who mind our own and keep
\nour own and ignore our own problems
\nbecause god damn aren\u2019t everyone else’s so much more
\ninteresting? We love each other the only way we know how,
\nthrough mashed potatoes and lullabies
\nand take that damn picture off your timeline
\nbefore grandma calls you a whore again.
\nThe Shambler, the back deck still smells like piss from the sea
\ngulls. It’s difficult to tell if our bruises are signs
\nof strength or big ticket items to get you
\nout from the shore. Kick left, then right, then
\nwould you look at that you\u2019re swimming.
\nYou\u2019re swimming, you\u2019re swimming, now dry off and eat
\nyour mashed potatoes because I love you,
\nbecause I told you so,
\nbecause I know I told you I love you.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The paint is less shiny and more speckled from the heat and sand and dusk and hurricanes brush. The stilts stretch their knuckles, flexed forgotten rafters holding baby shoes and pink umbrellas and condom wrappers. The Rambler, named by my grandfather, coined by my brother, The Shambler. The blue paint peeled down from the under […]<\/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":[67],"tags":[25],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Jypy-4lR","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16731"}],"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=16731"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16733,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16731\/revisions\/16733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}