{"id":463,"date":"2024-02-19T10:10:05","date_gmt":"2024-02-19T15:10:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scottbevill.net\/HVA\/?p=463"},"modified":"2024-11-06T12:21:07","modified_gmt":"2024-11-06T17:21:07","slug":"elizabeth-acevedo-rat-ode","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottbevill.net\/HVA\/archives\/463","title":{"rendered":"Elizabeth Acevedo, &#8220;Rat Ode&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2-c3y3pYZ1g?si=v4_hEtwmWMOjJU-F\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Because you are not the admired nightingale.<br \/>\nBecause you are not the noble doe.<br \/>\nBecause you are not the picturesque<br \/>\nermine, armadillo, or bat.<br \/>\nThey\u2019ve been written, and I don\u2019t know their song<br \/>\nthe way I know your scuttling between walls.<br \/>\nThe scent of your collapsed corpse rotting<br \/>\nbeneath floorboards. Your frantic squeals<br \/>\nas you wrestle at your own fur from glue traps,<br \/>\nripping flesh from skin in an attempt to survive.<\/p>\n<p>Because in July of \u201997, you birthed a legion<br \/>\non 109th, swarmed from behind dumpsters,<br \/>\nmade our street infamous for something<br \/>\nother than crack. Shoot, We nicknamed you \u201cCat-killer,\u201d<br \/>\nraced with you through open hydrants,<br \/>\nscreeched like you when Siete blasted<br \/>\naluminum bat into your brethren&#8217;s skull\u2014<br \/>\nthe sound like slapped down dominoes. You reigned<br \/>\nthat summer, Rat<br \/>\nAnd even when they sent exterminators,<br \/>\nset flame to garbage, half dead, and on fire, you<br \/>\npushed on.<\/p>\n<p>Because even though you\u2019re an inelegant, simple,<br \/>\na mammal bottom-feeder, always fricking famished<br \/>\nlittle ugly thing that feasts on what crumbs fall<br \/>\nfrom the corner of our mouths, but you live<br \/>\nuncuddled, uncoddled, can\u2019t be bought at Petco<br \/>\nand fed to fat snakes because you are not the maze-rat<br \/>\nof labs: pale, pretty-eyed, trained.<br \/>\nYou raise yourself sharp-fanged, clawed, scarred,<br \/>\npatched dark\u2014because of this alone he should love you.<br \/>\nBut look at the beast, the poet tells me.<br \/>\nThe table is already full,<br \/>\nand Rat, you are not a right, worthy thing.<br \/>\nEvery time they say that<br \/>\ntake your gutter, your dirt coat, fill this page, Rat<br \/>\nScrape your underbelly against street, concrete, you better<br \/>\nsqueak and raise the whole world, Rat;<br \/>\nlet loose a plague of words, Rat,<br \/>\nand remind them that you, that I\u2014<br \/>\nwe are worthy of every poem.<br \/>\nHere.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Because you are not the admired nightingale. Because you are not the noble doe. Because you are not the picturesque ermine, armadillo, or bat. They\u2019ve been written, and I don\u2019t know their song the way I know your scuttling between walls. The scent of your collapsed corpse rotting beneath floorboards. Your frantic squeals as you [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottbevill.net\/HVA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottbevill.net\/HVA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottbevill.net\/HVA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottbevill.net\/HVA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottbevill.net\/HVA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/scottbevill.net\/HVA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":479,"href":"https:\/\/scottbevill.net\/HVA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463\/revisions\/479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottbevill.net\/HVA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottbevill.net\/HVA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottbevill.net\/HVA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}