{"id":19784,"date":"2022-03-29T23:13:54","date_gmt":"2022-03-30T03:13:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/?p=19784"},"modified":"2022-04-27T16:10:28","modified_gmt":"2022-04-27T20:10:28","slug":"pondering-ann-iv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/2022\/03\/29\/pondering-ann-iv\/","title":{"rendered":"PONDERING ANN: IV"},"content":{"rendered":"

MORNING SHOWER\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I have bent my hand\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

into the shape of a<\/span><\/p>\n

chewed orange slice, or\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

a telephone cord curl,<\/span><\/p>\n

just so that the droplets<\/span><\/p>\n

of tap water draining<\/span><\/p>\n

from the showerhead<\/span><\/p>\n

roll down and appear\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

to pool from the very<\/span><\/p>\n

tips of my fingers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I am staring for\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

too long, and soap\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

has started to fall into<\/span><\/p>\n

my eyes. I\u2019m trying\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

to catch the bits of<\/span><\/p>\n

life we let slip\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

through the cracks.<\/span><\/p>\n

Like in the law quad,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

how symmetrical gothic\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

arches are adorned by\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

gargoyles<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

jutting their tongues<\/span><\/p>\n

at each passerby. <\/span>
\n<\/span>Or the child today\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

sitting in the greenery,<\/span><\/p>\n

with her jam stained<\/span><\/p>\n

hand stolen into one\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

pocket of a yellow\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

raincoat, the Morton<\/span><\/p>\n

Salt kind, and making<\/span><\/p>\n

the same gargoyle<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

face right back! And\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

although she did not\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

win that tongue-out\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

staring contest, she\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

gave the stone creatures\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

a run for their stone<\/span><\/p>\n

money.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This is a miracle.<\/span>
\n<\/span>No shooting stars\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

or runaway eyelashes.<\/span>
\n<\/span>This is it! All<\/span><\/p>\n

this living makes<\/span><\/p>\n

me think of the\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

time my lover and I<\/span><\/p>\n

walked the banks<\/span><\/p>\n

of Lake Michigan\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

and paused to gaze<\/span><\/p>\n

at the cold pools below.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Oh, the warmth<\/span><\/p>\n

as our stretched smiles<\/span><\/p>\n

filled the air, cackling<\/span><\/p>\n

at the sight of a lime<\/span><\/p>\n

green electric scooter<\/span><\/p>\n

hurled into the depths<\/span><\/p>\n

below. You could just<\/span><\/p>\n

make out the shape of<\/span><\/p>\n

of its handlebars,<\/span><\/p>\n

the rear wheel, and<\/span><\/p>\n

we smushed our cheeks\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

together like two<\/span><\/p>\n

rotten apples, laughing\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

at this work\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

of a mad man, or\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

an artist, or an architect\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

of human nature.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MORNING SHOWER\u00a0   I have bent my hand\u00a0 into the shape of a chewed orange slice, or\u00a0 a telephone cord curl, just so that the droplets of tap water draining from the showerhead roll down and appear\u00a0 to pool from the very tips of my fingers.\u00a0   I am staring for\u00a0 too long, and soap\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2256,"featured_media":19454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1826],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19784"}],"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\/2256"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19784"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19784\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19785,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19784\/revisions\/19785"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}