{"id":717,"date":"2019-04-30T21:02:56","date_gmt":"2019-05-01T01:02:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/crystallize\/?page_id=717"},"modified":"2020-07-17T12:09:19","modified_gmt":"2020-07-17T16:09:19","slug":"steven-salisbury","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/crystallize\/poetry\/steven-salisbury\/","title":{"rendered":"Steven Salisbury"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"page\" title=\"Page 3\">\n<div class=\"layoutArea\">\n<div class=\"column\">\n<p style=\"padding-left: 80px\"><strong>How to Take a Life<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 80px\">A fly lands on my forefinger,<br \/>\nBuzzing and jumping, fascinated<br \/>\nWith the plush expanse it crawls<br \/>\nOver. I stare\u2014<br \/>\nNo, I <em>watch<\/em> as it drones<br \/>\nAround the room.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 80px\">Just for a moment, flat, hairy feet<br \/>\nStretch toward my fingers,<br \/>\nAnxious to feel that soft mass on their<br \/>\nSoles again. And they do,<br \/>\nLand on the wrinkled knuckle of my thumb,<br \/>\nStraddling the ridges, perfectly still.<br \/>\nAnd at once, my hand slams to kill.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 80px\">But where, now, is that buzzing?<br \/>\nThat white noise to which I hummed?<br \/>\nWhere, now, is that momentary contact<br \/>\nWith something so unlike me, so alien,<br \/>\nThat it died by the same hand it stood?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 80px\"><strong><em>Distinguished Voices Poetry Prize, Finalist<br \/>\nSelected by Chen Chen<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 120px\"><em>&#8220;The focus on the casual killing of a fly\u2014full of rich detail\u2014makes this poem a startling meditation on life, death, and power.&#8221; &#8211; Chen Chen<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/crystallize\/previous-issues\/crystallize-review-2019\/poetry\/\">Back<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How to Take a Life A fly lands on my forefinger, Buzzing and jumping, fascinated With the plush expanse it crawls Over. I stare\u2014 No, I watch as it drones Around the room. Just for a moment, flat, hairy feet Stretch toward my fingers, Anxious to feel that soft mass on their Soles again. And [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":130,"featured_media":0,"parent":692,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-717","page","type-page","status-publish","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/crystallize\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/crystallize\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/crystallize\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/crystallize\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/130"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/crystallize\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/crystallize\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/717\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/crystallize\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/crystallize\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}