{"id":1282,"date":"2019-11-19T16:56:06","date_gmt":"2019-11-19T21:56:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/236magazine\/?page_id=1282"},"modified":"2019-11-20T15:05:34","modified_gmt":"2019-11-20T20:05:34","slug":"madeline-gilmore","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/236magazine\/madeline-gilmore\/","title":{"rendered":"Madeline Gilmore"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

September<\/h2>\n

Originally published in Bluestem.<\/em><\/h6>\n

 
\nLately it has been all sun<\/p>\n

without the euphoria. Pale<\/p>\n

flowers on the table.
\n <\/p>\n

In Kyoto, some trees are so old<\/p>\n

they are spirits, bound<\/p>\n

in ornamental rope, speaking<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

almost, from the frogs chirping<\/p>\n

in the shady part of the forest.<\/p>\n

In my apartment, even the AC
\n <\/p>\n

whirr cannot keep my plants alive,<\/p>\n

even the impression of your body<\/p>\n

on my mattress a dying spell.
\n <\/p>\n

When blacksummer rolls around,<\/p>\n

I find myself once again<\/p>\n

standing barefoot in my kitchen,
\n <\/p>\n

offering you what little I have.<\/p>\n

I am wretched at the gate of the shrine.<\/p>\n

Even the frogs could drown me.
\n <\/p>\n

Please, stay a while.<\/p>\n

Let me wrap you like a cord.<\/p>\n

Let me help you with your screenplay:
\n <\/p>\n

force the family out of their beds.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s about division. They will see<\/p>\n

the lighting strike the house.
\n <\/p>\n

Please<\/h2>\n

finalist for the Knightville Poetry Contest by the New Guard<\/em><\/h6>\n

 
\nI picked the werewolf
\ndouble feature, and now
\nyou regret letting me decide<\/p>\n

anything. Even here
\nin the anonymous dark
\nof the theater, I can tell<\/p>\n

you are making that pinched face
\nI hate, so I turn to you and say,
\n\u201cPlease, would you just notice<\/p>\n

what\u2019s really at stake? It\u2019s the fact
\nthat people would choose
\nto be werewolves if it weren\u2019t<\/p>\n

for all the morning-after guilt,\u201d
\nand you shake your head
\nand I sink farther in my seat, staring<\/p>\n

blankly at the full moon rising
\nabove some simulated misty moor,
\nunable to appreciate the sheer beauty<\/p>\n

of man transforming into beast.
\nHow exquisite it must be
\nto finally master the art<\/p>\n

of losing your mind,
\nto tremble with the urge to devour
\nall that had once called you by name.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Madeline Gilmore has her BA from Williams College and her MFA from Boston University. Her poetry has appeared in Bluestem Magazine<\/em>, the New Guard<\/em>, Vinyl, Bodega<\/em>, and an anthology she co-edited called If you\u2019re not happy now<\/em> (Broadstone Books, 2019). She lives and works in New York City.<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  September Originally published in Bluestem.   Lately it has been all sun without the euphoria. Pale flowers on the table.   In Kyoto, some trees are so old they are spirits, bound in ornamental rope, speaking   almost, from the frogs chirping in the shady part of the forest. In my apartment, even the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8422,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/236magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1282"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/236magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/236magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/236magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8422"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/236magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1282"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/236magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1291,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/236magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1282\/revisions\/1291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/236magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}