{"id":1644,"date":"2022-07-10T16:26:39","date_gmt":"2022-07-10T16:26:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fulloflit.com\/?p=1644"},"modified":"2022-07-10T16:30:28","modified_gmt":"2022-07-10T16:30:28","slug":"a-warped-face-on-the-bottom-of-the-glass-a-poem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fulloflit.com\/?p=1644","title":{"rendered":"A warped face on the bottom of the glass: A poem"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

A warped face on the bottom of the glass<\/p>

but the child only saw a pig.<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A pig, and nothing more.<\/p>

She studied the thin, black holes of eyes,<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0nose large and prominent,<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0tip of the upper lip barely visible over the thick white liquid.<\/p>

It was watching her.<\/p>

She drank quicker so it could be free,<\/p>

but tipping the glass farther<\/p>

and the pig disappeared,<\/p>

replaced by a series of\u00a0<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0indiscriminately\u00a0<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0black\u00a0<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0smudges.\u00a0<\/p>

such transience means nothing to children<\/p>

whose brother is calling<\/p>

\u201cCome on Weagan! Put on your zucchini!<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Weagan come on!\u201d<\/p>

She rushed out to greet<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0the heat<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0and the inflatable plastics<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0and the 80-acre barrier from the\u00a0<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 bogus simulation,\u00a0<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 always on high-exposure,\u00a0<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 dimmed by its clarity.<\/p>

But it was easier to ignore back then<\/p>

the only worry of parental calling-it-quits,<\/p>

because tiny fingers were crinkled like a crushed brown paper bag<\/p>

Children want to stay under the water,<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0become a full-body crinkle<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 until self was no more than a ball to throw at Sibling<\/p>

\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 two crinkly orbs floating<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 two atoms bumping into each other amongst all the other atoms.<\/p>

But they exited the water on command.<\/p>

And then the prolonged wait until<\/p>

the clicking of heels on the tile<\/p>

announced her arrival,<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0tired,\u00a0<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0setting down her bags<\/p>

only after the child barrels into her legs,<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0inhaling the scent of<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 cosmetics and<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 linen and<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 safety and<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 relief<\/p>

She came back to us and he returned from the fields and we ate dinner<\/p>

and I tipped and<\/p>

the pig inside of me appeared in my reflection,<\/p>

a transient and hazy but ever-present ghost of my childhood.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A warped face on the bottom of the glass but the child only saw a pig. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A pig, and nothing more. She studied the thin, black holes of eyes, \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0nose large and prominent, \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0tip of the upper lip barely visible over the thick white liquid. It was watching her. She drank quicker so it could […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-snippets","category-writingtips"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fulloflit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fulloflit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fulloflit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fulloflit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fulloflit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1644"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/fulloflit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1648,"href":"https:\/\/fulloflit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1644\/revisions\/1648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fulloflit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fulloflit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fulloflit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}