{"id":17828,"date":"2022-06-17T12:00:15","date_gmt":"2022-06-17T17:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/?p=17828"},"modified":"2022-06-16T05:37:36","modified_gmt":"2022-06-16T10:37:36","slug":"intervention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/archives\/17828","title":{"rendered":"Intervention"},"content":{"rendered":"

2022 Porch Prize Winner in Poetry<\/em><\/p>\n

What limpid choir, what skinless flock twisted its mouth & spoke<\/span>
\nwhen I was going to plunge the edge of the axe into the back of that man who\u2019d called me nigger<\/em><\/span>
\ndays before? His careless body arrived at my home unasked for<\/span>
\nafter 1 AM, became one with the woods,<\/span>
\na country blues hammered from the swollen gorge of a speckled thrush.<\/span><\/p>\n

Whose one voice boomed & rang in my <\/span>
\nWhose tenor did I search for & find nowhere<\/span>
\nwhen I chose to let that menace live?<\/span>
\nI want now to breathe out thanks for saving us both by stilling my penny-brown hands<\/span>
\nwhen I wanted blood for the slur, blood for the trespass, blood for the jagged white trail<\/span>
\nhe\u2019d keyed into the left side of my cherry sedan. Your grace,<\/span>
\nthat dash of diamond lightning that left me unfulfilled,<\/span>
\ngave me every tomorrow I\u2019ve known since; inside each one, a shard of that night\u2019s mercy, a regret, a<\/span>
\n———————————————————<\/span>wound<\/span>
\nI\u2019ve never been able to say time or any other divine beast would seal.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Christian J. Collier is a Black, Southern writer, arts organizer, and teaching artist who resides in Chattanooga, TN. He is the author of the chapbook\u00a0The Gleaming of the Blade\u00a0from Bull City Press. His works have appeared in\u00a0December, North American Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, The Michigan Quarterly Review, and elsewhere.<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2022 Porch Prize Winner in Poetry What limpid choir, what skinless flock twisted its mouth & spoke when I was going to plunge the edge of the axe into the back of that man who\u2019d called me nigger days before? His careless body arrived at my home unasked for after 1 AM, became one with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2272,"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":[63,73],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Jypy-4Dy","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17828"}],"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\/2272"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17828"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17841,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17828\/revisions\/17841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}