For What Binds Us<\/p>\n
There are names for what binds us:<\/p>\n
strong forces, weak forces.<\/p>\n
Look around, you can see them:<\/p>\n
the skin that forms in a half-empty cup,<\/p>\n
nails rusting into the places they join,<\/p>\n
joints dovetailed on their own weight.<\/p>\n
The way things stay so solidly<\/p>\n
wherever they’ve been set down —<\/p>\n
and gravity, scientists say, is weak.<\/p>\n
And see how the flesh grows back<\/p>\n
across a wound, with a great vehemence,<\/p>\n
more strong<\/p>\n
than the simple, untested surface before.<\/p>\n
There’s a name for it on horses,<\/p>\n
when it comes back darker and raised: proud flesh,<\/p>\n
as all flesh<\/p>\n
is proud of its wounds, wears them<\/p>\n
as honors given out after battle,<\/p>\n
small triumphs pinned to the chest —<\/p>\n
And when two people have loved each other<\/p>\n
see how it is like a<\/p>\n
scar between their bodies,<\/p>\n
stronger, darker, and proud;<\/p>\n
how the black cord makes of them a single fabric<\/p>\n
that nothing can tear or mend.<\/p>\n
~ Jane Hirschfield ~<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For What Binds Us There are names for what binds us: strong forces, weak forces. Look around, you can see them: the skin that forms in a half-empty cup, nails rusting into the places they join, joints dovetailed on their own weight. The way things stay so solidly wherever they’ve been set down — and gravity, scientists say, is weak. And see how the flesh grows back across a wound, with a great vehemence, more… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-main"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1kHSD-18N","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dangermond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dangermond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dangermond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dangermond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dangermond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4389"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.dangermond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4390,"href":"http:\/\/www.dangermond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4389\/revisions\/4390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dangermond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dangermond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dangermond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}