{"id":7828,"date":"2018-02-26T21:39:20","date_gmt":"2018-02-27T04:39:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/?page_id=7828"},"modified":"2018-02-26T21:39:20","modified_gmt":"2018-02-27T04:39:20","slug":"socrates-the-frog","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/?page_id=7828","title":{"rendered":"Socrates the Frog"},"content":{"rendered":"

Frances Klein<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The man next to me on the MAX
\n                         –car is empty why so close<\/em>–
\nclears his throat noisily and hocks spit onto the floor.
\nSomething moves in the fluid,
\n                         –that a maggot what the hell<\/em>–
\nthen shudders, stills.
\nHe clears his throat again
\nand my eyes slide back,
\nexpecting to see white
\nwrithing between chapped lips.
\nThen he\u2019s nodding at my book
\non Socratic learning, leaning in
\n                         –too close too close too close<\/em>–
\nconfidentially to tell me,
\n\u201cSocrates was a frog, you know.\u201d
\n                         –frog can\u2019t be frog<\/em>–
\n\u201cA . . . fraud?\u201d
\nA snort of derision, another
\njet engine intake of mucus collected
\nand ejected into the puddle at his feet.
\nCrushed carapace glint
\nin the fluorescent lights.
\n                         –jesus mary and joseph oh christ<\/em>–
\n\u201cYeah, that too, I guess.\u201d
\nHe sniffs a wayward antenna
\nback up one nostril,
\nwipes on his sleeve, coughs.
\n\u201cI never could figure out how that frog motherfucker got so famous.\u201d
\n                         –saying frog not fraud frog<\/em>–
\nHe leans his head back,
\napparently content with the course
\nour conversation has run.
\nThe vent above us
\nstarts wheezing heat and he murmurs
\nwith pleasure, rolling up his sleeves
\nto reveal hair covered arms.
\n                         –barbed those hairs are barbed what tarantula shit <\/em>–
\nIt slow opens one eye
\nto fix on me again, smile spreading,
\ntranslucent film hammocked
\nbetween row after row
\n                         –too many too many so many too many<\/em>–
\nof needle teeth.
\n\u201cThis right here\u2019s the best spot. Get that vent goin\u2019, feels like the fuckin\u2019 swamp in here.\u201d
\nI sit past the end of the line,
\nbook long since fallen from my hand.
\nInchoate fear and unseasonal sweat
\nweb me to the slick plastic seat
\nas it wallows in the humidity,
\n                         –no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no-
\n<\/em>ecstatic, obscene.
\n\u201cYeah man, I tell ya, feels just like home.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

FRANCES KLEIN<\/strong> is a high school English teacher. She was born and raised in Southeast Alaska, and taught in Bolivia and California before settling in Indianapolis with her husband Kris. She has been published in GFT Press<\/em>, and Molotov Cocktail<\/em>, among others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Frances Klein     The man next to me on the MAX                          –car is empty why so close– clears his throat noisily and hocks spit onto the floor. Something moves in the fluid,                          –that a maggot what the hell– then … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":7827,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-7828","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P15duy-22g","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7828","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=7828"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7839,"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7828\/revisions\/7839"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}