I don\u2019t know when we slept
\nbut it must have looked like<\/p>\n
water trapped under ice<\/p>\n
that first
\na hip against the half-light<\/p>\n
_____________<\/p>\n
Tides break every day
\non this much-ordered planet<\/p>\n
I can\u2019t say which is worse<\/p>\n
old silence or new<\/p>\n
but my teeth grow flat
\nfrom grinding this single chaff
\n_____________<\/p>\n
We are composites of water and bone<\/p>\n
adult<\/p>\n
I only glimpsed your summer face<\/p>\n
sudden like an auburn wing
\nagainst the gray and broken sidewalk
\n_____________<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know what I could have said<\/p>\n
but night wears its antler of stars<\/p>\n
which is at turns raw
\nand square<\/p>\n
Sleep blankets breath
\nand this hails for knowing<\/p>\n
what we gained in sharpness
\nwe lost in feeling
\n23<\/p>\n
I finger a peace
\nlid over the rest<\/p>\n
No matter what I try
\nI waver and forget<\/p>\n
that the branch is broken
\nand my belly is against it
\n_____________<\/p>\n
What we knew in winter
\ndid connect<\/p>\n
the summer\u2019s drawn-out pile
\nof clothing, noise and grief<\/p>\n
No one could live that way<\/p>\n
and the light I saw
\nup over and to my right
\nwas not ours<\/p>\n
if you find this
\nit\u2019s already too late<\/p>\n
and nothing replaces that
\nexcept for a tautness I can\u2019t match<\/p>\n
that rises up
\nand then behind<\/p>\n
like silence for some greater skin
\n_____________<\/p>\n
The timelines we follow
\nare for teeth to erupt<\/p>\n
a plane to scale
\na certain falling to ascend<\/p>\n
I knew you for an hour
\nI know you for lost<\/p>\n
a coil, a spring
\n24<\/p>\n
a breach<\/p>\n
is what we work at
\nand make with our time<\/p>\n
Nostrils are for the intake of air
\nthis comes first<\/p>\n
and these buttons for flight
\nare the membranes we must survive<\/p>\n
because return is lidded
\ncloud-shaped green
\nand irregular at best<\/p>\n
_____________<\/p>\n
So beneath is hardly a song<\/p>\n
breath\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0brain\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0fin
\nsalt\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0mouth\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0harrow
\nvein\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0and heart corporeal
\nand canned<\/p>\n
the trestled meat of the chest
\nby which we judge moon, sound and eye
\nstill faulty and warm:<\/p>\n
you stoved me up is what<\/p>\n
what you did is stove me up
\nso that I\u2019ll never put an ear to it without wondering.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know when we slept but it must have looked like water trapped under ice that first a hip against the half-light _____________ Tides break every day on this much-ordered planet I can\u2019t say which is worse old silence or new but my teeth grow flat from grinding this single chaff _____________ We are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[25],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s6Jypy-idyll","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4899"}],"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=4899"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10290,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4899\/revisions\/10290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}