I. Immigration<\/p>\n
She lived under leaves, lissome and cold,
\nin a wild bed burrowed beneath the arched roots
\nof a decrepit tree. Time grew rings in the soles of her
\nfeet. She left the roots and the beetles, a cradle <\/p>\n
she\u2019d carved from the dust. She traveled like driftwood,
\nriding a winding path to a hill-cut town. Its mottled and wet
\nbanks wash her into their backdoors. In these new places,
\nshe swept the rooms of wooden mistresses, <\/p>\n
embraced their linens: Scrubbed and wrung brown sheets;
\nplunged her chipped knuckles in smoky water. Slog up, grind down.
\nSkin and cloth against furrowed washboard ridges; spine bent
\nand unbent under the wet morning. She threads her days. <\/p>\n
II. Skins<\/p>\n
To skin potatoes you have to get bone-close.
\nFlick the peeler\u2019s blade a cut above a bracing thumb;
\nnow whittle what\u2019s withering,
\nscalpel the sheath that rots; run down the cinched
\nstarch bodies, separate skins from cores.
\nRind dirt will rub into perspiring pores,
\nwet, where your fingers glide and shift and score
\nanother veil of skin. Cut again
\nbut here with a chef\u2019s knife; precise. Incisions
\nso clean the oval flats sweat glossy sheens
\nthat glint with light like mirrors. The starch
\nwill glisten and bead but you won\u2019t stop. You\u2019ll cut
\nand cut, while the beige oxidized in air turns dark,
\nthe way blood does, leaving the body.<\/p>\n
I. Immigration She lived under leaves, lissome and cold, in a wild bed burrowed beneath the arched roots of a decrepit tree. Time grew rings in the soles of her feet. She left the roots and the beetles, a cradle she\u2019d carved from the dust. She traveled like driftwood, riding a winding path to a […]<\/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":[6],"tags":[25],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Jypy-1YG","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7606"}],"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=7606"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10078,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7606\/revisions\/10078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}