{"id":1915,"date":"2011-04-30T19:08:21","date_gmt":"2011-05-01T00:08:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/davious.org\/now\/?p=1915"},"modified":"2024-12-17T23:17:34","modified_gmt":"2024-12-18T04:17:34","slug":"tough-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davious.org\/now\/2011\/04\/tough-love\/","title":{"rendered":"Tough Love"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<pre class=\"wp-block-preformatted\">You\u2019re going to make a father out of me:\nfirst snake I\u2019ve held;\nfirst baby I\u2019ve cared for.\nI place my hand into your cage;\n you sniff and avoid\n when it\u2019s obvious to me you should glide right on.\nOnly after both of my hands have lain on either side of you\n and you\u2019ve tucked yourself into a ball,\n head resting on curls, do I realize\n I must pick you up directly.\n\nYou don\u2019t snap when I pinch;\nthen it\u2019s hand over hand over hand:\nnon\u2013stop.\n\nOn the table, in the sun,\nyou stretch out into a new world.\nYou don\u2019t know and there\u2019s no way for me to tell you:\nit\u2019s small.\nJust one big circle as far as the eye can see:\nonly, snakes are blind.\n\nYou\u2019re so young; you need this experience\nto learn to move, to understand your body.\nYou head straight for the edge;\nit\u2019s instinctual or inevitable.\nAnd there\u2019s my hand.\nIt\u2019s such a long drop; I don\u2019t want you bruised or dead.\nSo, here\u2019s my hand.\nAnd you comprehend.\nAnd, though it\u2019s not the best new place to go,\n perhaps it\u2019s the only place you know.\n\nAnd, back on the table you go\nand straight to the edge.\nI blame the small circle you\u2019re in;\nand, a hand I extend.\nAnd you still search for ground.\nI pull up a chair, in case you want to leave.\nDo you dare? You sense something underneath;\nthough it be further than you\u2019re long,\nyou hover down till \u2014 plump \u2014 you fall\nbelly to the sun.\nYou twine between the slats\ntill, like water, you find that sinking leg\nand dive down \u2014 despite its sheer plastic,\ncrimp on it with your pinky\u2013full stomach\nuntil \u2014 plop \u2014 again.\n\nBack to the circle and its edge you go.\nThis time, no hands, though.\nWe are both learning about falling here.\nNow, I see you can smell the ground \u2014 or its absence \u2014\nand I let you dip\nas far off the edge as you dare;\nhead and belly drip\nwith just your scales left to grip\nand that fine sense of gravity,\nrefined from your last fall,\nsaves you\nor perhaps this is normal activity\nwith which I\u2019ve just been meddling?\nNow, you gracefully circle and dip\nalong the edge without fear to slip;\njust desperate for some place wherewith to get\ndown.\n\nI guess I\u2019ve learned my lesson, now,\nknowing, as I take you in my hand,\nwe needn\u2019t go hand over hand over hand.\nAnd I need not worry about your leaning on me\nwhile upon my hand you circle \u2019round.\nto curl into a peaceful perch \u2014\nuntil you sniff deeper ground.<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You\u2019re going to make a father out of me: first snake I\u2019ve held; first baby I\u2019ve cared for. I place my hand into your cage; you sniff and avoid when it\u2019s obvious to me you should glide right on. Only after both of my hands have lain on either side of you and you\u2019ve tucked [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[23],"class_list":["post-1915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poems","tag-dragonfly-book"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davious.org\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davious.org\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davious.org\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davious.org\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davious.org\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1915"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/davious.org\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1915\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3562,"href":"https:\/\/davious.org\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1915\/revisions\/3562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davious.org\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davious.org\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davious.org\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}