This morning, the spell broke.
\nPut your hand in my heart, feel the tender new shoots\u2013
\nferns shouting back at a creek like two songs.<\/p>\n
You came like a season, bearing gifts for the animals.
\nCresting a hill known for decades as only the beautiful place.
\nShouting for bears and worrying the ground for salamanders,
\nstill hidden beneath their cool, stone furniture.<\/p>\n
And the heart, an animal. Myself, an animal,
\nflinching back from the horses. From the intimate
\nshove of their breath, the ropework of powerful muscle
\nbeneath their coats, vast and wild and slow.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the time of year we all need a good, hard rub
\nto shed the old, dry casing. Need uncommon mercy,
\nthe white umbel of wild ginseng at the forest\u2019s floor.
\nLove like a carrot in your fist.<\/p>\n
Yes, even death blooms here.
\nThe putrefaction of deer hung pendulous on dusk\u2019s hot gust,
\nwith the frogsong. With the new, pollen yellow of the wind
\narcing over a shoulder the color of cinnamon.<\/p>\n
Even death blooms here. Atop the lives of all the animals\u2014
\nour uniform, amniotic fragility surging underfoot.
\nBorn again each year to the same rough earth.
\nTo the same unimaginable luck.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This morning, the spell broke. Put your hand in my heart, feel the tender new shoots\u2013 ferns shouting back at a creek like two songs. You came like a season, bearing gifts for the animals. Cresting a hill known for decades as only the beautiful place. Shouting for bears and worrying the ground for salamanders, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2317,"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":[83,1],"tags":[25],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Jypy-542","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19470"}],"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\/2317"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19470"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19471,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19470\/revisions\/19471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}