I, Roger Reeves, hereby pledge that I will not come back
\nto this city, if this city will not come back to me.<\/p>\n
I leave the children waving their flags and wrists
\nat a dark sky, without worrying about the coconut tree
\ndropping its wintered fruit upon their heads.<\/p>\n
I leave the man with his one leg turned backward
\nto walk this street twice as pure contradiction.<\/p>\n
I leave the heron on the roof, the dachshunds
\nscrambling over the cobblestone in their black
\npatent-leather shoes, and the flies to open-wide<\/p>\n
and swallow as much melon as they can before evening comes
\nand that same melon is between my lips.<\/p>\n
I leave puddles at the end of driveways
\nand in them, to float, tiny fronds of a flower
\nthat I cannot name but the woman beside me can.<\/p>\n
I leave the fresh bread in wire baskets and the old women
\nto point at each roll they wish to place in their mouths.<\/p>\n
I leave the opera house, its green domes draped in gold,
\nthe cobbler and his glue, the mechanic and his belly,
\nand yes, I leave rain to wash every bare foot in this city.<\/p>\n
I leave the children\u2019s thirst on the metro
\nnext to a pink pen that no longer holds ink.<\/p>\n
I leave the numbers by which I know this city,
\nits epistemologies and apartheids, its mornings,
\nits slips of paper, its slivers and its seeds,<\/p>\n
its dry floors and short showers, its roosters
\nthat cannot distinguish between the blue of morning<\/p>\n
and the blue of night. I leave the coffee spilled
\nonto the floor of the bus, your hand between my legs\u2014
\nthis will surely leave a stain.<\/p>\n
I, Roger Reeves, hereby pledge that I will not come back to this city, if this city will not come back to me. I leave the children waving their flags and wrists at a dark sky, without worrying about the coconut tree dropping its wintered fruit upon their heads. I leave the man with his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"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":[8],"tags":[25],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s6Jypy-pledge","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3801"}],"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\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3801"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3801\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10329,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3801\/revisions\/10329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}