{"id":15510,"date":"2021-02-15T19:04:38","date_gmt":"2021-02-16T00:04:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/?p=15510"},"modified":"2021-02-15T19:04:38","modified_gmt":"2021-02-16T00:04:38","slug":"the-rose-vine-eternity-for-men","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/2021\/02\/15\/the-rose-vine-eternity-for-men\/","title":{"rendered":"the rose vine – “Eternity, for Men”"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Eternity, For Men”<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

I can\u2019t explain who I am without the stuff<\/span><\/p>\n

I own. The space I inhibit in this room,<\/span><\/p>\n

the full length mirror and the floor camouflaged<\/span><\/p>\n

in boy-jeans and flowing dresses<\/span><\/p>\n

silent yet screaming at me, \u201c<\/span>boy or girl?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Boy or girl?\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

BOY OR GIRL?<\/span><\/i>\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I glance at my closet, for a moment finding silence\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

in the cologne I spent entirely too much\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

on because I thought it would make me happy<\/span><\/p>\n

and it did, for a time. Every inhale brought euphoria<\/span><\/p>\n

that never seemed enough. I need more<\/span><\/p>\n

to prove who I am to me, to you.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I inhale, the one symbol of masculinity uninhibited\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

by my mother\u2019s curves<\/span><\/p>\n

or the chest still unmapped.<\/span><\/p>\n

It smelled of leather and fire,<\/span><\/p>\n

the ex-boyfriend\u2019s garage\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

before I knew wanting\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

to be someone and with someone weren\u2019t the same thing.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Of course I knew.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The way I crossed my arms\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

and bound my chest before it developed<\/span><\/p>\n

before I learned\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

no one wants an it.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Before that boyfriend called me Eric and laughed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Before I knew laughter as the consequence of sincerity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Before I accepted laughter and abandoned sincerity.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Eternity, For Men” I can\u2019t explain who I am without the stuff I own. The space I inhibit in this room, the full length mirror and the floor camouflaged in boy-jeans and flowing dresses silent yet screaming at me, \u201cboy or girl? Boy or girl?\u00a0 BOY OR GIRL?\u201d   I glance at my closet, for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2241,"featured_media":15511,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1658,1657,281,15,1656],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15510"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2241"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15510"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15516,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15510\/revisions\/15516"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}