{"id":7103,"date":"2016-03-03T16:43:48","date_gmt":"2016-03-03T23:43:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/?page_id=7103"},"modified":"2016-03-03T16:43:48","modified_gmt":"2016-03-03T23:43:48","slug":"imperfect-appalachian-she-in-acrylic","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/?page_id=7103","title":{"rendered":"Imperfect, Appalachian She in Acrylic"},"content":{"rendered":"

Danielle Nicole Byington<\/strong><\/p>\n

I model for the artist, my hair unwashed,
\nHis brush massaging it with exaggerated grime,
\nAn anxious texture to intimidate gallery gaze.
\nThe hours slowly falling behind the scene
\nBegin to bear streams of cluttered-sunset hues that
\nThe portrait cradles behind my body.
\nI pose in a corn stalk row,
\nThe background going on forever
\nLike a hotel hallway.
\nWorms fumbling for their key
\nMate on the dangling silk,
\nLeaving larvae that browns the artist\u2019s canvas.
\nHis paintbrush phantomizes a Native American
\nSprawled on her stomach,
\nElbows perching her interested head
\nAbove a Shakespeare text, her Anglo-painted eyes
\nLooking at me as if I know what I\u2019m doing.
\nMy arm falls asleep leaning on the hoe,
\nMy fingers shaking from clutching the corncob pipe,
\nAnd in his intermissions I smoke it,
\nChasing the tobacco with
\nBourbon I stashed in the set;
\nI pass the flask to Anoki.
\nShe squints when she swallows,
\nAnd drops of the power
\nSpill from her lips,
\nBlurring orbs of words in Hamlet<\/em> —
\nAs if she needed those anyways.
\nHis strokes dress me in an American flag
\nCinched on one shoulder like a toga,
\nCompounding intellect and freedom,
\nAssuming I can cook and reproduce.
\nHe chooses chosen colors for my pallor,
\nAnd lightens my hair to imply tradition.
\nStanding so long, I burrow my toes in the soil,
\nKicking back at a sharpness.
\nHe instructs me to be still,
\nAnd my toes gently bleed on something beneath the canvas.
\nHe waves his hand and paintbrush in shock,
\nCursing the corn as if it has ears.
\nI look back;
\nCrimson runs up the stalks to the tips of their limp leaves,
\nDripping on the ground with a tribal patter.
\nAnoki shuts her Shakespeare book,
\nStanding to approach me, relieving my arm of the hoe,
\nPlacing a hand on my shoulder,
\nUntying the toga.
\nShe swings the hoe with a broad stroke,
\nBrushing my neck and chest with the tool,
\nIts heavy, metallic head collapsing into the dirt.
\nI want to clutch the wound, but she reaches first,
\nHer warm, brown hands catching my blood,
\nHer eyes looking for something inside me.
\nDisabling my portraiture, she finds it;
\nI know because her lips part,
\nThe reward of critical gaze painted on her face,
\nAnd she says, . . . that is the question<\/em>.<\/p>\n

DANIELLE NICOLE BYINGTON<\/strong>‘s work can be seen in The Camel Saloon<\/em>, Black Mirror Magazine<\/em>, Right Hand Pointing<\/em>, and Rust + Moth<\/em>. In pursuing her English-MA, Danielle’s academic work focuses on the boundary between creative writing and literature, such as appropriation and ekphrasis. Danielle enjoys life with her three cats and Shakespearean better half.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Danielle Nicole Byington I model for the artist, my hair unwashed, His brush massaging it with exaggerated grime, An anxious texture to intimidate gallery gaze. The hours slowly falling behind the scene Begin to bear streams of cluttered-sunset hues that … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":7101,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-7103","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P15duy-1Qz","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7103"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7114,"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7103\/revisions\/7114"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}