{"id":71,"date":"2020-06-01T11:50:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-01T16:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/poetrysouth\/?p=71"},"modified":"2022-12-01T11:51:45","modified_gmt":"2022-12-01T17:51:45","slug":"aftermath-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/poetrysouth\/poetry\/aftermath-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Aftermath"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ryan Lally<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I stare at this sum of subtraction:
\u201c4084 lynched\u201d catches the throat<\/p>\n\n\n\n

with words that won\u2019t come out, clinging
to the dorsum of the tongue, cleaving<\/p>\n\n\n\n

like a soft punch
Pushed gradually into the stomach<\/p>\n\n\n\n

until it slices
like rope into skin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I stare at the number
until you become<\/p>\n\n\n\n

conversations, until your eyes are no longer burned
out photographs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I calculate all of you;
I am greedy with vision<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and I wonder
if this multiplies your pains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You are dead and unchained
to this crisis of clarity<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and I am a rag spun from unknowing and
like a town of witnesses<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am saturated with the guilt of all this knowing
and I look at your charred bodies made<\/p>\n\n\n\n

sacred and sanctified
and your eyes are uncrossed infinities<\/p>\n\n\n\n

unmaking me.
I fear truth and I fear<\/p>\n\n\n\n

forgetting anything about you,
but your silence tells me<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I will die
with all the questions<\/p>\n\n\n\n

still half-formed in a tomb
I will die<\/p>\n\n\n\n

without answers.
I am incurably prone to hyperbole,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

but believe me:
I love you all,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

so I will take these clippings of your souls
And remember you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Issue 10, 2018, pp. 22-23<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ryan Lally I stare at this sum of subtraction:\u201c4084 lynched\u201d catches the throat with words that won\u2019t come out, clingingto the dorsum of the tongue, cleaving like a soft punchPushed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/poetrysouth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/poetrysouth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/poetrysouth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/poetrysouth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/poetrysouth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/poetrysouth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72,"href":"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/poetrysouth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71\/revisions\/72"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/poetrysouth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/poetrysouth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/poetrysouth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}