{"id":2765,"date":"2019-12-13T00:12:06","date_gmt":"2019-12-13T04:12:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/?p=2765"},"modified":"2019-12-20T18:18:20","modified_gmt":"2019-12-20T22:18:20","slug":"friday-feature-the-gutting-by-jeremy-proehl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/2019\/12\/13\/friday-feature-the-gutting-by-jeremy-proehl\/","title":{"rendered":"Weekly Feature| The Gutting by Jeremy Proehl\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n
\r\n
\r\n

My father hauled a dead sea <\/span>
turtle from a beach in the <\/span>
Florida Keys <\/span><\/p>\r\n

he coveted that shell, <\/span>
he\u2019d seen one on a restaurant wall.<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/span>\r\n


I was not allowed to watch, but I <\/span>
tried to see my father over the <\/span>
dunes<\/span><\/p>\r\n

sand spurs in my feet I pushed <\/span>
upward over gentle curves of <\/span>
sand to see the gutting of that <\/span>
sea turtle wondering how life <\/span>
was removed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Flies <\/span>
everywhere, <\/span><\/p>\r\n

do they kettle or simply swarm over <\/span>
death? <\/span><\/p>\r\n

I did not know I was too young.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The angles of my father\u2019s wrist <\/span>
\u2014\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

he held the knife his <\/span>
bones and tendons <\/span>
rippling under his <\/span>
skin <\/span><\/p>\r\n

cutting, and <\/span>
cutting <\/span><\/p>\r\n

scraping flesh from <\/span>
shell\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\r\n

finalizing <\/span>
death. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

My father worked for <\/span>
hours\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

in the Florida <\/span>
sun\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

I watched, <\/span>
and watch\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

to understand this man, I\u2019d <\/span>
never\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

seen so violent and <\/span>
destructive.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

My father never divorced my mother, <\/span>
but\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

she left <\/span>
him he left <\/span>
her\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

the chaotic kettling cycle of a <\/span>
relationship:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

One would <\/span>
return,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

then the <\/span>
other\u00a0<\/span>
only to repeat: leave \u2013 return \u2013 leave… <\/span>
cutting words\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

sharp angular <\/span>
words\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

That shell hung on our wall for <\/span>
years\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

seeming to decay with the <\/span>
marriage.<\/span>
<\/span><\/p>\r\n

\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

There were no hills of sand to hide behind, only hollow <\/span>
doors no sand spurs to remind me that I had feelings\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

no sounds of the ocean or <\/span>
seagulls to cover the gutting <\/span><\/p>\r\n

I sold that shell to a neighbor kid for fifty <\/span>
cents.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

…<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Jeremy Proehl\u2019s<\/strong> poems have appeared in several anthologies and he was recently mentioned in the August 2019 issue of The New Yorker. Proehl has attended the Dodge Poetry Festival, Bread Loaf Writers\u2019 Conference\u2019s (Vermont and Sicily), and the Lost Lake Writers\u2019 Retreat. Proehl currently works in the garage-door industry.<\/em>


<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My father hauled a dead sea turtle from a beach in the Florida Keys he coveted that shell, he\u2019d seen one on a restaurant wall. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2771,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Weekly Featured Work\nThe Gutting | Jeremy Proehl\u00a0(poetry)\n\n\"I was not allowed to watch, but I tried to see my father over the dunes..\"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,241,165,170,213],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-weekly-feature","category-domestic-violence","category-environment","category-health","category-poetry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/jeremyturtle.jpg?fit=631%2C865&ssl=1","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2765"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2765\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3564,"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2765\/revisions\/3564"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}