{"id":4392,"date":"2011-08-01T00:10:39","date_gmt":"2011-08-01T05:10:39","guid":{"rendered":"\/nashvillereview\/?p=4392"},"modified":"2015-02-17T10:17:28","modified_gmt":"2015-02-17T16:17:28","slug":"4392","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/archives\/4392","title":{"rendered":"from Winter: aphorisms<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

Someone cries every few minutes in our family
\nfor the past four and a half years. My older son is crying because he has to go upstairs
\nto get dressed. My younger son is crying because he can\u2019t go upstairs.<\/p>\n

King Lear, I tell them,<\/p>\n

said Never never never never never. King Lear, I tell them, like all of you<\/p>\n

said No no no. King Lear, they say back, their fingers curled<\/p>\n

by their noses like sneaky rats, their noses curled
\nand both of the little boys<\/p>\n

walking like creeps on their tiptoes, as if we are each<\/em><\/p>\n

(I see them signal) God\u2019s loosening spies\u2014<\/em><\/p>\n

_______________<\/span><\/p>\n

~<\/p>\n

_______________<\/span><\/p>\n

Dada, come ah-on! Says the baby waggling all his fat fingers at Dada. Dada, come on, says his older
\nbrother more clearly. I am the pattern of all patience! he replies. Jesus,<\/p>\n

not Lear,<\/p>\n

I remind him, first revealed himself a king<\/p>\n

at a wedding.<\/p>\n

Revealed himself at the wedding, my husband replies,
\nbetween the fat and bones<\/p>\n

of the king who is locked<\/p>\n

inside too many skins.<\/p>\n

_______________<\/span><\/p>\n

~<\/p>\n

_______________<\/span><\/p>\n

Between the wine wearing thin
\nat midnight and the miracle wine\u2014, I declare, became king<\/p>\n

of the bride and the bridegroom, king
\nof that bed. Put ladder<\/p>\n

on fire truck? Yes, sweetheart, I continue: he slipped<\/p>\n

to the bed of their bodies, slipped to the bed<\/p>\n

of their ordinary marriage and between even
\nthose lovers making love,\t I tell my son, he was king.<\/p>\n

_______________<\/span><\/p>\n

~<\/p>\n

_______________<\/span><\/p>\n

_____<\/span>They were three kings, their mouths touching,<\/p>\n

my husband raptures, the lover-kings<\/em>\u2014.<\/p>\n

That marriage,<\/p>\n

he throws the fire truck to the floor, pissed, not for lovers!
\nThat the marriage for the pirate<\/em> to the soldier<\/em>,<\/p>\n

my son continues, and it cuts off their heads<\/em>.<\/p>\n

_______________<\/span><\/p>\n

~<\/p>\n

_______________<\/span><\/p>\n

Where a person might pause\u2014
\nto stop<\/em>,
\nthat is the mercy. Child. With no stop
\nthere is no mercy: and our own<\/p>\n

lives in it. Women
\nreveal themselves in children.
\nMen
\nreveal themselves in deeds and acts<\/p>\n

or even the coherence<\/p>\n

of his mind. The coherence<\/p>\n

of the mind of the child. Cohering
\nof the man and the woman or thus<\/p>\n

the coherence of the child: to flatten,<\/p>\n

to encroach, or to retreat.<\/p>\n

_______________<\/span><\/p>\n

~<\/p>\n

_______________<\/span><\/p>\n

Night carries the stars as it turns. As water<\/p>\n

is moved slowly by cupped hands\u2014<\/p>\n

the family moves through each night: the family is a clear
\nsphere. Inside all the other clear spheres<\/p>\n

and holding within itself<\/p>\n

all the clear spheres and all of them turning
\nclocks. Mama, I have to go potty. Okay sweetheart. And all the moments<\/p>\n

of every clock are the unfolding<\/p>\n

or the loosening mind. Correct and test<\/p>\n

the folds and unfolds<\/p>\n

against your life. Mama, I\u2019ll yell
\nwhen you have to wipe my butt. Against a broader commonwealth:<\/p>\n

of moans, slipping. Slipping through the humans.<\/p>\n

_______________<\/span><\/p>\n

~<\/p>\n

_______________<\/span><\/p>\n

Slipping through the animals.<\/p>\n

Slipping to the rock\u2014 moans.
\nMoans<\/p>\n

that you may
\nor you may not know.<\/p>\n

_______________<\/span><\/p>\n

~<\/p>\n

_______________<\/span><\/p>\n

Mama, poop is coming out of my butt.<\/p>\n

Okay, honey.<\/p>\n

Does that make you real happy?<\/p>\n

Yes.<\/p>\n

_______________<\/span><\/p>\n

~<\/p>\n

_______________<\/span><\/p>\n

Slipping, we will lose winter, altogether. Our home, just a few feet
\nfrom the melt-off of one of the world\u2019s last glaciers: \tthere will be the moment<\/p>\n

when it actually stops.<\/p>\n

To freeze, I tell my son, is not the same<\/p>\n

as to stop.<\/p>\n

_______________<\/span><\/p>\n

~<\/p>\n

_______________<\/span><\/p>\n

Slipping, we will lose winter, altogether. The whole
\nof the mountain will lose winter.<\/p>\n

The mind will lose winter as our world becomes\u2014.\t Night is the mind<\/p>\n

that cools in the earth\u2019s shadow.<\/p>\n

_______________<\/span><\/p>\n

~<\/p>\n

_______________<\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019re held inside that shadow<\/p>\n

for exactly the time needed
\nto distill a particular star out<\/p>\n

of the greater light of the sun\u2014we\u2019re held within night<\/p>\n

exactly the lengths and cuts of time needed to dim<\/p>\n

that mind of the sun.<\/p>\n

_______________<\/span><\/p>\n

~<\/p>\n

_______________<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s a pirate fallen into the water.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s a terrible pirate crawling over a log.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a volcano and that is a hole of fire.<\/p>\n

The sun?<\/p>\n

Yes, the hole of fire.<\/p>\n

Tonight the snow<\/p>\n

floated upward into
\nincessant rain while the neighbor\u2019s lost peacock wept<\/p>\n

and our cup runneth\u2014it\u2019s true, what they say: the cock<\/p>\n

calls out to you and me like a baby sobbing.<\/p>\n

_______________<\/span><\/p>\n

~<\/p>\n

_______________<\/span><\/p>\n

And after the long rain.<\/p>\n

And after that<\/p>\n

a break in the falling\u2014 and the long
\ngray month. And another. And the daytime<\/p>\n

barely distinguishes itself from the night. Then maybe
\nsilence as all the parts<\/p>\n

move smoothly across and together and apart
\nfrom one another. Remember: thrumming,<\/p>\n

mingling, windswept, once
\nwhen there was only my mind<\/p>\n

and no other mind. And only at night and when the night broke
\ninto day\u2014 and in the day there was actual light.<\/p>\n

_______________<\/span><\/p>\n

~<\/p>\n

_______________<\/span><\/p>\n

Sky<\/p>\n

is what showed the way<\/p>\n

to the New World: the stars commanded this way<\/em>. Oskar,
\noh, little son of the sky\u2014 son holding the fat baby son\u2019s hand<\/p>\n

through the snow: we point out the milky way. Oskar, I tell him,<\/p>\n

the mind of night and the mind of light, they<\/p>\n

brought us to this. Brought us this reciprocal looming unreadable map<\/p>\n

we point you toward.<\/p>\n

They made us this way.<\/p>\n

Sarah Vap<\/a><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Someone cries every few minutes in our family for the past four and a half years. My older son is crying because he has to go upstairs to get dressed. My younger son is crying because he can\u2019t go upstairs. King Lear, I tell them, said Never never never never never. King Lear, I tell […]<\/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":[14],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s6Jypy-4392","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4392"}],"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=4392"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10317,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4392\/revisions\/10317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}