I do not understand how the trace
\nof fingertips across the back of my neck
\nhas a gender\u2014 the press of lips <\/p>\n
to my temple, the sobs that rattled
\nmy ribcage like a ghost shaking
\nthe walls of a place it longed to leave, <\/p>\n
your arms both the exorcist and
\nthe blessing\u2014 but you would not
\nhave held me so close had you known <\/p>\n
I was a boy. I could have held you
\ntogether through the long nights
\nwhen poetry could not contain <\/p>\n
whatever clawed at the edges
\nof your mind\u2014 you named it
\nmonkey, demon, mania\u2014<\/p>\n
but I\u2019ve always known how
\nto talk it into silence. You believe
\nthat no man could have this power<\/p>\n
over you. I say that I do not
\nunderstand why you love must
\nattach itself to gender. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I do not understand how the trace of fingertips across the back of my neck has a gender\u2014 the press of lips to my temple, the sobs that rattled my ribcage like a ghost shaking the walls of a place it longed to leave, your…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1091,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1091"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47722"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50167,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47722\/revisions\/50167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}