{"id":3548,"date":"2013-08-30T21:47:22","date_gmt":"2013-08-30T21:47:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/?page_id=3548"},"modified":"2023-04-03T12:29:38","modified_gmt":"2023-04-03T16:29:38","slug":"the-yellow-transparents","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/the-yellow-transparents\/","title":{"rendered":"The Yellow Transparents"},"content":{"rendered":"

[column col=”1\/4″]\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

paper \u2022 97 pages \u2022 12.95
\nISBN-13:  1-884800-13-0<\/p>\n

Add to Cart<\/a><\/p>\n

[\/column]<\/p>\n

The Yellow Transparents<\/em><\/h1>\n

Joan Aleshire<\/h2>\n

HEALING<\/p>\n

(In memory of Pepper Constable)<\/i><\/p>\n

If the tests come out wrong, if the cells
\nbegin to fail in their quiet weaving;
\nif the body that so lightly carries
\nthis life betrays me — some night
\nwhen the pines talk to one another,
\nwhen no moon would tell my secret, snow
\nwould fill my steps, I could go to that hill
\nso far beyond my neighbor’s it has no name.
\nWalking and waiting for numbness, I’d feel
\nthe blade of air I’d chosen for my chest.
\nAnd if winter were too far away, the water
\nI watched today could take me — swift
\nchurn of Otter Creek Falls, fanning out
\nsmooth, moving from shore. Entering
\nsuch depth, a body would be part
\nof a motion, alive in its last time.<\/p>\n

The doctor sensed the first tear
\nin his own tissue. The hand
\nwith scythe-neat nails began to belong
\nto someone rebellious, his feet
\nwere marble boats headed different ways,
\nhis tongue turned against the thoughts
\nthat tried to guide it. His country lost
\nits history — the childhood house
\nwith its wings and boxwood borders,
\nthe woman he noticed as she turned away.
\nHe dreamed of dusty arenas, every exit
\nbarred, a roar coming from the bull chute.<\/p>\n

Doctor, he knew there’d be no reversal;
\nno way to cut or soothe. The ocean was open
\nall the way to the skyline; generous and deep.
\nHow did he choose the time — after a day
\nof stumbling, or one so bright it tempted him
\nto stay? One night of no moon, he listened
\nto his wife breathing deep and even,
\nslipped back the broad cuff of sheet. Standing
\nhe let his night clothes fall like snakeskin,
\nrustling down. He stepped in the last future
\nhe could make — cold salt marking his ankles,
\nhis calves as he waded in. Thighs, balls,
\nbelly, chest. The tide began to love him
\nthen, its pulse pressing his nipples,
\nanswering his heart. He kept on,
\nletting in the water that would be his new air,
\nopening to the larger world, the failed body
\nlost to the final healing.<\/p>\n

About the Author<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[column col=”1\/4″] paper \u2022 97 pages \u2022 12.95 ISBN-13:  1-884800-13-0 Add to Cart [\/column] The Yellow Transparents Joan Aleshire HEALING (In memory of Pepper Constable) If the tests come out wrong, if the cells begin to fail in their quiet weaving; if the body that so lightly carries this life betrays me — some night when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3548","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3548"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19215,"href":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3548\/revisions\/19215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}