{"id":15812,"date":"2024-02-05T20:15:29","date_gmt":"2024-02-06T02:15:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/?p=15812"},"modified":"2024-02-07T10:25:53","modified_gmt":"2024-02-07T16:25:53","slug":"good-friday-and-people-are-at-their-telescopes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/2024\/02\/05\/good-friday-and-people-are-at-their-telescopes\/","title":{"rendered":"Good Friday and People Are at Their Telescopes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Good Friday<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Julia Johnson<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

__________<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today even crueler than yesterday, you in your suit, tucked in, great and holy Friday. I keep you in the book I do not hold. The brave clouds roll in. Maybe you were meant to balance a glass on your head in my dream. Maybe Fellini taught me about white clowns. You taught me about the spectacular observation of things. I can\u2019t believe it <\/em>is not something I want to soon overcome. To forget a name or to lose something like a key easily replaced and then seen again on a highway sign as a reminder or as a copy identical to the last one. But here we are in a sudden shift. To everything having meaning, down to the new slow drip of the faucet or to the peek of white from the season\u2019s first peony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

__________<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People Are at Their Telescopes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Julia Johnson<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

__________<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Waiting for the center of our galaxy to be in view. Waiting for a monumental occurrence we already know: An M87 black hole whose dark center is darker than before. A reddish doughnut, as they say, the color of a fox. We find ourselves wheeling around in it, a bottomless vortex. How we wait for the closest view, inside a spoon, but like a faraway pulse I am afraid we are looking again now. A sheet will come over our toes while we lie perfectly still. What are we doing there we ask ourselves while eating a small tart. The shape a rough circle in the eye seen from above. An approach to the extraordinary and suspicious universe. I follow you from the observatory\u2019s highest deck. Put you in the sharpest focus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

__________<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Julia Johnson, a native of New Orleans, is the author of three poetry collections: Subsidence <\/em>(Groundhog Poetry Press, 2016), The Falling Horse <\/em>(Factory Hollow Press, 2011), and Naming the Afternoon <\/em>(LSU Press, 2002). She teaches creative writing at the University of Kentucky.<\/p>\n\n\n

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To learn more about submitting your work to Boudin<\/a><\/em> or applying to McNeese State University’s Creative Writing MFA program<\/a>, please visit Submissions for details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Good Friday Julia Johnson __________ Today even crueler than yesterday, you in your suit, tucked in, great and holy Friday. I keep you in the book I do not hold. The brave clouds roll in. Maybe you were meant to balance a glass on your head in my dream. Maybe Fellini taught me about white…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[196],"tags":[75,100,101,26,42],"class_list":["post-15812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-hybrid-this-is-it","tag-boudin","tag-flashfiction","tag-microfiction","tag-fiction","tag-hybrid"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15812"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15873,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15812\/revisions\/15873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}