{"id":3968,"date":"2015-01-03T11:57:48","date_gmt":"2015-01-03T11:57:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/?p=3968"},"modified":"2016-01-27T11:46:17","modified_gmt":"2016-01-27T11:46:17","slug":"dark-matter-erika-a-rist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/?p=3968","title":{"rendered":"DARK MATTER — Erika A. Rist"},"content":{"rendered":"

I eulogize you
\nSometimes Without
\nmeaning to.
\n 
\nWhen I\u2019m driving,
\nWith only the dark
\nAnd the city non-stars
\nAnd the ghosts on the radio
\nTo keep me warm.
\n 
\nI swear I don\u2019t mean to.
\nThe words find me
\nWrite themselves
\nScrawl themselves into existence
\nBleed themselves onto my canvas mind
\n 
\nThe words say that you
\nWere love incarnate
\nThat I know love existed
\nBecause of you
\nEven if it had never before been true
\nIt was true with you
\n 
\nYou ran around Earth a small cluster of stars
\nQuietly exploding
\nRadiating softly
\nMaking it so all of us could see
\n 
\nIf someone got too close, though,
\nFrom a certain direction In a certain way
\nIf their coordinates were just a little bit off
\nYou\u2019d go spinning in the opposite direction,
\nYour gravitational fields nearly compromised
\n 
\nYou were shaken and desperate
\nKnowing all the time
\nThat the only thing holding you together
\nWas you.
\n 
\nI was scared that
\nOne day You\u2019d go spinning off
\nAway From me, too.
\n 
\nFour years ago, something
\nEntered your field
\nPierced you
\nSnuffing out two sister stars
\nWhose home was at the middle of you
\n 
\nYou tried to shoot away
\nYou fought so hard
\nScreamed But no one heard you through the void
\nAnd you\u2019d been pinned down.
\n 
\nYou got worried After that
\nAnticipating the burn,
\nCradling all the stars of you
\nWith your too-small hands
\nProtecting them
\nFrom their inevitable apoptosis
\n 
\nI called you from California
\nTo bleed on the phone with you
\nSaying that I\u2019d been ripped through, too
\n 
\nA vacuum swallowed the line
\nAs you finally spun from me.
\n 
\nChanging things you had
\nNo right to
\nBecause someone
\nChanged you
\nFirst.
\n 
\nWhat you pretended to forget
\nThough
\nIs that we were\u2014
\nAre\u2014
\nA binary system
\n 
\nI openly bleed dark matter.
\n 
\nYou pretend you aren\u2019t,
\nCover the inking wound with your hair.
\n 
\nYou\u2019re in Philadelphia.
\nBut I don\u2019t know where you are.
\n 
\n 
\n\"ErikaErika A. Rist is a Chicago transplant looking to thrive without too-deep roots. She is a feminist activist and aspiring attorney with lofty ambitions for herself and for society. Currently, she lives in Roger’s Park with a vindictive cat named Lady.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I eulogize you Sometimes Without meaning to.   When I\u2019m driving, With only the dark And the city non-stars And the ghosts on the radio To keep me warm.   I swear I don\u2019t mean to. The words find me Write themselves Scrawl themselves into existence Bleed themselves onto my canvas mind   The words [&hellip<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3318,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3968"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3968\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4069,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3968\/revisions\/4069"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}