{"id":981,"date":"2011-07-01T12:24:14","date_gmt":"2011-07-01T16:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gadflyonline.com\/wpblog\/?p=981"},"modified":"2012-07-15T20:12:32","modified_gmt":"2012-07-16T00:12:32","slug":"mulieris-by-caroline-mccraw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/mulieris-by-caroline-mccraw\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Mulieris&#8221; by Caroline McCraw"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gadflyonline.com\/wordpress\/audio\/mulieris.mp3\">&#8220;Mulieris&#8221; by Caroline McCraw<\/a><\/p>\n<p>What levee broke here, daughter?<br \/>\nThe mother\u2019s skinny arms of the south, made to poke from sleeveless housedresses<br \/>\nwith hands that rest on hips, or wait on the front porch with a glass of<br \/>\ncold\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 water\u2014<\/p>\n<p>Arms that cinched harvests of laundry, once towering above Gibralter,<br \/>\nand that held you to her breast in the river as the preacher shouted from above,<br \/>\n<em>What levee broke here, daughter?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>You recall these arms, scrawny with love; but sometimes, the soft glow of a moon mama<br \/>\nfalls across your nightly altar<br \/>\nof verses and solitude, a glow of longing from the deep night sky and you fear that you want<br \/>\nthis mama more than you crave<br \/>\ncold\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 water.<\/p>\n<p>But when the mind dips its foot over the edge of the earth, you\u2019ll falter\u2014<br \/>\nStruck by the disappointment of limits and What Now; just try, after this, returning<br \/>\nto those you love\u2014<br \/>\nWhat levee broke here, daughter?<\/p>\n<p>You\u2019ll go home, do dishes, splash suds along your bony arms, but how can you exalt her<br \/>\nwhen behind every blink your thoughts are wormholes and floating and nothing<br \/>\nrings true, save<br \/>\ncold\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 water.<\/p>\n<p>It grabs your body in two words, a haunting psalter<br \/>\nsweetly shocked; so when you\u2019re asked of<br \/>\nWhat levee broke here, daughter?<br \/>\nsay:<br \/>\ncold\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 water<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>About the Poet:<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Caroline McCraw is a recent graduate of the University of Virginia, where she studied in the Area Program in Poetry Writing and Studio Art Distinguished Majors Program. She was a 2011 University Arts Scholar, and recently received an ACCIAC Award in Creativity and Innovation for her thesis work,\u00a0<em>Unreal City<\/em>, a photographic and poetic installation based on T.S. Eliot\u2019s\u00a0<em>The Waste Land<\/em>. Her work as appeared in\u00a0<em>Glass,Garden<\/em> and\u00a0<em>3.7 Arts &amp; Literary Magazine<\/em>. She is from Durham, North Carolina.<\/p>\n<p><em><br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Mulieris&#8221; by Caroline McCraw What levee broke here, daughter? The mother\u2019s skinny arms of the south, made to poke from sleeveless housedresses with hands that rest on hips, or wait on the front porch with a glass of cold\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 water\u2014 Arms that cinched harvests of laundry, once towering above Gibralter, and that held you [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,219,199],"tags":[161],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/981"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=981"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3282,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/981\/revisions\/3282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}