{"id":4405,"date":"2013-09-21T14:29:26","date_gmt":"2013-09-21T14:29:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sporkpress.com\/?p=4405"},"modified":"2013-09-21T14:29:26","modified_gmt":"2013-09-21T14:29:26","slug":"semblance-by-david-mohan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/2013\/09\/21\/semblance-by-david-mohan\/","title":{"rendered":"Semblance by David Mohan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Beatrice is walking\u2014no reason except the cops have moved her twice.
\n     
\nThe sirens are in remission. Now is the hour of fire hydrants opening\u2014of street geysers. The world\u2014drunks, whores, sidewalk passengers\u2014seems to be taken with a thirst. People are drinking\u2014impromptu fountains are opened by the cleaning trucks. The garbage is swept, sprayed, whirled out of sight.
\n     
\nBeatrice stops outside a department store, its windows still lit. It\u2019s cold\u2014she shuffles on the spot. She won\u2019t sit.\u00a0 She\u2019s proud that way\u2014they won\u2019t let her sit, she won\u2019t sit. Not even if they begged her. She can learn to sleep standing instead. She turns to face the window scene.
\n     
\nThey are taking the spring sale displays apart on the inside\u2014everything is up for grabs, everything is broken up.
\n     
\nShe admires the chaos of it\u2014all the dummies are nude this season. Their bodies are smooth\u2014 their faces nonchalant as though they don\u2019t notice they are undressed. She admires how neat they\u2019ve cut the plastic of their hair. Their crotches are hairless, unbroken. She wonders what that must be like\u2014these girls are edits, neuters, virgins.
\n     
\nOne seems to look straight at her\u2014a provocation.\u00a0 It\u2019s rude to stare, her mother used to say. That was a long time ago. They don\u2019t seem to mind, these dummies. They\u2019re looking out, disdainful, like visitors at a zoo.\u00a0 Beatrice won\u2019t let it hurt her. What do they know about being alive, anyhow? \u00a0They are all armless, decapitated.
\n     
\nNext week this store will be selling pinks. The models will live in a garden of cellophane. She poses for a moment with the cape of her sleeping bag slung over her shoulders.
\n     
\nUntil then Beatrice is their queen, dressed in her body-suit of neon, weather, the night.
\n     
\n     
\n\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014
\nDavid Mohan<\/strong> has work forthcoming or has been published in Necessary Fiction<\/em>, Word Riot<\/em>, Opium<\/em>, SmokeLong Quarterly<\/em>, FRiGG<\/em>, Contrary<\/em>, elimae<\/em>, decomP<\/em>, NANO<\/em> and The Chattahoochee Review<\/em>. He has been nominated for The Pushcart Prize.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Beatrice is walking\u2014no reason except the cops have moved her twice.       The sirens are in remission. Now is the hour of fire hydrants opening\u2014of street geysers. The world\u2014drunks, whores, sidewalk passengers\u2014seems to be taken with a thirst. People are drinking\u2014impromptu fountains are opened by the cleaning trucks. The garbage is swept, sprayed, whirled out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,3,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-fiction","category-things"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4405\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}