{"id":212,"date":"2011-04-04T17:39:00","date_gmt":"2011-04-04T17:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=212"},"modified":"2011-04-04T17:39:00","modified_gmt":"2011-04-04T17:39:00","slug":"susan-rukeyser-wants-this-to-go-no-further","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/susan-rukeyser-wants-this-to-go-no-further\/","title":{"rendered":"Susan Rukeyser wants this to go no further"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mother Lies<\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019ll keep this between us, okay?<\/span>
    Yesterday, my boy was wild.  He whooped and circled, dodged the tall thin trunks of Longleaf Pines.  Bare feet stamped a forest floor soft with the dead and dying.  Here and there, a sharp pine cone brought a yelp.  His torso was sleek and streaked red with clay, like war paint, or blood.  In one hand: a stick meant to be a pistol; in the other, a chunk of quartz he dug from the ground for me.<\/span>
    When the sun winked good night and the trees loomed dark, he brought me my gift.  His breath was quick from all the running, and curls clung damp to his cheeks, his throat.  He smelled of the earth.  In the blur as he moved: a glimpse of the man he\u2019ll be.    <\/span>
    Tonight he\u2019s expected at school.  They\u2019re displaying model cities built from kits.  My son stands before me, spine straight, chin high, like I tell him.  His dress shoes\u2014oh, he hates them\u2014whisper over carpet.  I smell the thick white bar of soap, the kids\u2019 shampoo.  Deodorant blooms from beneath each arm; he started wearing it this year.  I bought it all, I can\u2019t complain.  His button-down oxford stinks of dry cleaning.  <\/span>
    Downstairs, my husband jingles car keys.  <\/span>
    I coo, \u201cMy little man, my gentleman,\u201d and tuck a curl behind his ear.  He offers a bashful smile, as if he\u2019s willing to pretend with me, that this is good.  <\/span>
    I miss the savage.  I prefer him.  But I\u2019m not supposed to, so I don\u2019t tell\u2014Only you.  <\/span>
    My little gentleman buckles his seat belt without a reminder.  The doors lock automatically.  Another child is civilized, another mother lies.  <\/span>
<\/p>\n


*Susan Rukeyser<\/span><\/a><\/font> is half American, half Manx.  She wrote a novel, and it\u2019s not half bad.  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mother Lies We\u2019ll keep this between us, okay?    Yesterday, my boy was wild.  He whooped and circled, dodged the tall thin trunks of Longleaf Pines.  Bare feet stamped a forest floor soft with the dead and dying.  Here and there, a sharp pine cone brought a yelp.  His torso was sleek and streaked red with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}