{"id":46,"date":"2009-04-11T21:06:10","date_gmt":"2009-04-12T04:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/basweeney.com\/writings\/?p=46"},"modified":"2009-05-08T15:17:29","modified_gmt":"2009-05-08T22:17:29","slug":"leavetaking-july-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/basweeney.com\/writings\/?p=46","title":{"rendered":"Leavetaking \/ July 4"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Barbara Sweeney<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There is too much light in this room.<br \/>\nIt is too bright to see anything<br \/>\nbut the dark table.<br \/>\nYou come in through the door<br \/>\nas if hundreds of years<br \/>\nwould make no difference.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Picture of author and friends<br \/>\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 in the sand box up their eyes in pies<br \/>\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 huddled under doll carriages<br \/>\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 for shelter against warriors who are<br \/>\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (really) boys with stitches in their heads<br \/>\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 and mothers arranging<br \/>\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 marriages.<\/p>\n<p>I saved everything to show you.<br \/>\nI kept the blood in jars.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Picture of magic happening to the author<br \/>\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 at the hands of anarchists, atheists:<br \/>\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 new light on literature, certain<br \/>\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 knowledge of explosives, knives<br \/>\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 and the twilight color of<br \/>\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 hands and teeth and mouths.<\/p>\n<p>The house was green with red chairs and a blue car in the driveway.<br \/>\nDays were filled with artichokes and plums; nights held<br \/>\nwooden matches up to wicks.<br \/>\nThen somehow, I lost you<br \/>\nlike laundry on the road<br \/>\nstrewn off to the side<br \/>\nwith dead animals, hub caps<br \/>\nall the usual things.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You began believing public clocks.<br \/>\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I began taking advice from the dead.<\/p>\n<p>Picture of author<br \/>\nin the bath<br \/>\nunmatched by normal contours.<br \/>\nNo one is waiting<br \/>\nfor her hair to dry<br \/>\n(choir of angels)<br \/>\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This summer night all wet with honey and tears.<br \/>\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This night all alive with gunpowder.<\/p>\n<p>Appeared in The Malahat Review;<br \/>\nNumber 52, October 1979<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Barbara Sweeney There is too much light in this room. It is too bright to see anything but the dark table. You come in through the door as if hundreds of years would make no difference. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Picture of author and friends \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 in the sand box up their eyes in pies \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 huddled [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-leavetaking_july4","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/basweeney.com\/writings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/basweeney.com\/writings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/basweeney.com\/writings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/basweeney.com\/writings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/basweeney.com\/writings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/basweeney.com\/writings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68,"href":"http:\/\/basweeney.com\/writings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46\/revisions\/68"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/basweeney.com\/writings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/basweeney.com\/writings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/basweeney.com\/writings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}