{"id":2542,"date":"2018-01-11T15:46:04","date_gmt":"2018-01-11T15:46:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/floridareview.cah.ucf.edu\/?post_type=article&p=2542"},"modified":"2018-01-11T15:46:04","modified_gmt":"2018-01-11T15:46:04","slug":"daily-monsters-three-poems","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/article\/daily-monsters-three-poems\/","title":{"rendered":"Daily Monsters: Three Poems"},"content":{"rendered":"

Where the Wild Things Are, Too<\/h3>\n

I want to tell my daughter the monsters
\nmoving in the night are her parents.
\nI am a bare-chested wildebeest\u2014
\na minotaur with broken horns\u2014
\nmom is something more subtle
\nand serpentine. She will turn
\nintruders into stone.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We throw our voices against the cave wall.
\nWe aim to confuse. We snuff out the flames.
\nWe hope you sleep through oblivion,
\nthe packed bags and misplaced phones,
\nthe dental floss leading out of the labyrinth.
\nWe hope you wait years before slaying us
\nand ripping our arms out of their sockets
\njust for the hell of it,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

at least<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>until morning\u2019s light<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

bashes our heads in.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Kudzu Roots<\/h3>\n

Recent reports read that kudzu
\nroots are not so prevalent. That
\nthe South\u2019s monsters have been
\nexaggerated. And yet, in all
\nthese black-and-white family photos,
\nour eyes shine green as Catholic Ireland.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The vines could not be harvested
\nand withered under blazing hoof-
\nbeats and instead were planted
\nas a means for battling the wind\u2014<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In what forms were they ever really rooted?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Like anything foreign in one land
\nor the next, they grew from gardens
\nnear the home, creeping in private
\nmemories, around dinner plates
\nand bedposts, in the pastel soap
\ndish tucked beside the kitchen sink.
\nLike a latch key, a fleck of blood
\nno one knew existed turned some-
\nwhere in the night and gathered up
\nits seed, as a means for hiding some-
\nthing too sinister to be dissolved
\nin sweet tea and idle chatter.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

These murmurs bleached their own
\nmythologies. The door standing ajar
\npermitted shadows to experiment
\nin either botany or prayer, and
\nthe green monsters swallowing
\nalabaster moons dwindled
\nin rearview mirrors, until size
\nand shape were no larger than pup-
\npets, with thumbs for ears\u2014<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Can I hitch a ride tonight?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The truck does not slow down for the man
\nstanding on the shoulder, his arm
\nextended from the dark eaves
\nin an unanswerable optimism.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The vines choked the red brick
\nsteeple, purple blossoms swinging
\nlike bells in the morning light.
\nKudzu roots tangled with our
\nheartstrings. The past has a name
\nflowing in the veins of the earth,
\nand the future hides in the shade
\nfeasting on rows of broken church
\npews and forlorn hymnal pages.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Do the words or the organ sound first?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The transient past bleeds into
\nthe groundwater. They used to
\nspray herbicide on those vines
\nby the highway. Daddy laughed
\nat the wasted effort. When you plant
\na seed, when the seed breaks open
\nto the will of the roots, then that wall
\nbetween was and is no longer stands
\nfor anything. Perhaps the mighty vine
\nonly swallowed a thumbnail \u201cone-sixth
\nthe size of Atlanta.\u201d Well, anybody could still
\nhide a secret in a body that size, and any
\nbody would still have a story to tell\u2014<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

After picking suckers off tobacco stalks,
\nwe would drink from an unwashed cup.
\nI could mine the metal in the cool drops;
\nthe flavor of gold fillings in my grandpa\u2019s mouth\u2014
\nthe sustenance of his words on my tongue,
\nhis pronunciation of the word bum<\/em>: as if
\nit could be pronounced bomb <\/em>and
\nleave its meaning unchanged in the eyes
\nand ears of his captive children. The dogs
\nsniffed out the tiny bones near the lattice
\nwrapped in grapevines, but they found no
\nname for its toothless jaws.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Could you touch the nature of it if you rolled down the window\u2014<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

or would you be left holding the sound of cicadas in bloom?<\/p>\n

<\/h3>\n

Speaking with Mammoths<\/h3>\n

We shiver in the Arctic
\nof the ICU.\u00a0 These bodies
\non beds like polar bears
\nwith urine-colored fur.
\nThey are noble, and they
\nare dying. Doctors
\nat a distance jot down notes.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

His head is a weak vulture
\non white sheets. His teeth
\nare yellow with cannibalism.
\nI watch him now with his
\nabsence of speed and purpose.
\nHe floats on his iceberg bed.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cTell me about the mammoth!\u201d
\nI almost scream, but his posture
\nis unnatural as he recedes
\ninto the pillow. His life retreats,
\nbut I can still feel the mass
\nof his piercing tusk\u2014
\nthat act of fire and blood.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Underneath the glacier\u2019s thrust
\nare scars cutting the stone.
\nHe is cold now, but he was colder
\nthen\u2014even as he blanketed my
\nbody and devoured its shape
\nwith child and marriage and
\nnow this unnamed state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I want to tell my daughters the monsters \/ moving in the night are her parents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2543,"template":"","categories":[9,49,119],"tags":[480,481,6,482,483,484,485,486,487,488,489,490,491,492,493],"class_list":["post-2542","article","type-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aquifer","category-literary-features","category-poetry","tag-aging-and-dying","tag-american-south","tag-aquifer-the-florida-review-online","tag-bryan-harvey","tag-children-and-parents","tag-icu","tag-kudzu","tag-kudzu-roots","tag-mammoths","tag-mythologies","tag-parenting","tag-speaking-with-mammoths","tag-the-past","tag-too","tag-where-the-wild-things-are"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDaily Monsters: Three Poems - The Florida Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/article\/daily-monsters-three-poems\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Daily Monsters: Three Poems - 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