It\u2019s better to be there
\nwhen the day is slowing down
\nand the light sudden means<\/p>\n
rip off this veil and bleed
\nor signal the next drone
\nin white, and check out.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s better not simply to imagine
\nthe bleached walls as shorelines,
\nthe antiseptic smell of after-death,<\/p>\n
the tin sounds of sounds
\nmoving on carts down halls.
\nIt\u2019s better to see the spider<\/p>\n
who escapes the cleansing
\nfrenzy, moving like a dark star
\nacross the corridor\u2019s inverse heaven.<\/p>\n
But is it better to be the last one
\nto hear a human breath,
\nthe trillionth, quadrillionth,<\/p>\n
as life itself forgets. Or is it
\nbest to simply imagine after,
\nto sense that final fuzziness,<\/p>\n
heaven, hell, earth and sky,
\nof this small room,
\nthe antic world outside,<\/p>\n
and pretend all\u2019s well,
\nthat the last word is one
\nof joy, or spoken in amazement?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the asking, then the question,
\nall the rest we want, desire, love,
\na sense of speculation.<\/p>\n
Nothing comes back.
\nNothing came through.
\nThe eyes open and close.<\/p>\n
Darkness is always on the inside,
\na room, a brain, and outside again,
\nmoving into the next room.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s better to be there when the day is slowing down and the light sudden means rip off this veil and bleed or signal the next drone in white, and check out. It\u2019s better not simply to imagine the bleached walls as shorelines, the antiseptic smell of after-death, the tin sounds of sounds moving on […]<\/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":[5],"tags":[25],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Jypy-1vg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5782"}],"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=5782"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5782\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10244,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5782\/revisions\/10244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}