{"id":1530,"date":"2017-10-23T08:37:57","date_gmt":"2017-10-23T15:37:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/?p=1530"},"modified":"2017-10-22T12:33:24","modified_gmt":"2017-10-22T19:33:24","slug":"the-travelers-answer-by-michelle-muenzler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/?p=1530","title":{"rendered":"The Traveler’s Answer by Michelle Muenzler"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/h6>\n

“I asked him,” she says,
\nfingers cradling the cheap plastic of her cup.
\nIce cubes\u00e2\u20ac\u201dexpensive in the station bar\u00e2\u20ac\u201ddance and crack within.
\n“Exactly as you wanted me, I asked him\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6”<\/p>\n

Her companion waits for her to finish; when she does not\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6
\n“And? What did he say?”<\/p>\n

She pauses, unsure.
\nShe is unused to such uncertainty;
\nto questioning the questions and not the answers she has gleaned.<\/p>\n

Her companion doesn’t notice,
\nor perhaps he notices but doesn’t care to let her know.<\/p>\n

“And,” she continues, wanting only this moment to be over
\n–and honestly, since speaking with the traveler, wanting all moments over;
\nwishing the world itself cease the constant low-level thrum
\nshe now cannot unhear–
\n“And he said it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not the colddeep that kills your soul,
\nnor the constant sleep, alone in your coffin in space,
\nyear after year after year after year\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6”<\/p>\n

Her companion leans forward–this is what he wants,
\nwhat the traveler has always before refused to share.<\/p>\n

“It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the eyes,” she says, then stops, wondering why the words sound so different when she says them,
\nas opposed to him.<\/p>\n

Her companion startles; flinches.
\nCertain that his uncertainty is wrong.
\n“The what?”<\/p>\n

“The eyes,” she says again, and cannot unremember the way it was said to her,
\nthe frantic scratch of the traveler\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s voice,
\nthe fog of his breath in his capsule as she checked and rechecked
\nhis status boards and reluctantly okayed him yet another flight.
\n“The eyes, he said, and how at every port they remain the same
\nno matter how far away he runs,
\nno matter how far away he flies.”<\/p>\n

Her companion grips his cup–glass, he can afford it.
\n“The eyes,” he says.
\nAnd deep in thought yet still a blank, “The eyes…”<\/p>\n

Her hand twitches;
\nice bobs up, bobs down; topples, sinks, and rises again.
\nShe questions speaking more but speaks anyway.
\n“Are you happy now, now you have your answer?”
\nShe hopes he is more than she hopes he is not.
\nOr perhaps it’s the other way around; it’s hard to tell anymore.<\/p>\n

“I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know,” her companion says. “It’s not what I expected.”<\/p>\n

She releases a shagged breath.
\n“It never is,” she says at last, still focused on the ice.
\nOn anything but her companion’s face.
\n“It never is.”<\/p>\n

illustration from\u00c2\u00a0Ars pictoria\u00c2\u00a0: or, An academy treating of drawing, painting, limning and etching\u00c2\u00a0: to which are added thirty copper plates expressing the choicest, nearest, and most exact grounds and rules of symmetry<\/a> Year<\/b>: 1669<\/a> (1660s<\/a>) Authors<\/b>: Browne, Alexander, fl. 1660-1677<\/a> Browne, Alexander, fl. 1660-1677. Whole art of drawing, painting, limning, and etching<\/a> Jode, Arnold de, active 1660-1669<\/a>Fialetti, Odoardo, 1573-1638<\/a> Bloemaert, Abraham, 1564-1651. Oorspronkelyk en vermaard konstryk tekenboek<\/a><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“I asked him,” she says, fingers cradling the cheap plastic of her cup. Ice cubes\u00e2\u20ac\u201dexpensive in the station bar\u00e2\u20ac\u201ddance and crack within. “Exactly as you wanted me, I asked him\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6” Her companion waits for her to finish; when she does not\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 “And? What did he say?” She pauses, unsure. She is unused to such uncertainty; […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1530"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1538,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1530\/revisions\/1538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}