{"id":5679,"date":"2025-04-28T12:45:03","date_gmt":"2025-04-28T18:45:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/novusliterary.comliterary.com\/?p=5679"},"modified":"2025-05-01T16:24:42","modified_gmt":"2025-05-01T22:24:42","slug":"somebody-to-love-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/novusliterary.com\/2025-archive\/somebody-to-love-2\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Somebody to Love&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<pre class=\"wp-block-verse\">I bought this car to prove I could<br>and now, as I wait to turn left<br>a man exits the Quik-Stop,<br><br>black sweats sagging, pantlegs<br>shirred halfway up his narrow calves.<br>He\u2019s probably my age, maybe even<br><br>a one-time middle-school messiah.<br>He slouches down the sidewalk,<br>knees hinging like a marionette<br><br>as if in time to Grace Slick,<br>who\u2019s up so loud the ragtop throbs.<br>He gestures toward traffic with a tall-boy<br><br>then folds to the curb. How I envy him.<br>My tongue swells as the cold slides<br>down his throat, jaw slackening,<br><br>the world easing up a little.<br>My sister drank the same brand<br>when her check ran thin.<br><br>The last time I saw her<br>she drove up to the house, window down.<br>Come on, she said. It hadn\u2019t been long<br><br>since I couldn\u2019t say no, veins drawn tight<br>brain to toes\u2014so I went inside.<br>I wish she was here. She\u2019d settle down<br><br>on the curb beside him, light a cigarette,<br>put her hand out for his beer.<br>And he would give it to her,<br><br>the joke passing between their eyes\u2014<br>me still in my lane<br>mouthing the words to the song,<br><br><em>you better find somebody to love.<\/em><\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I bought this car to prove I couldand now, as I wait to turn lefta man exits the Quik-Stop,black sweats sagging, pantlegsshirred halfway up his narrow calves.He\u2019s probably my age, maybe evena one-time middle-school messiah.He slouches down the sidewalk,knees hinging like a marionetteas if in time to Grace Slick,who\u2019s up so loud the ragtop throbs.He [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":5599,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,8],"tags":[],"art_contributors":[432],"literary_contributors":[418],"class_list":["post-5679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-poetry","art_contributors-yatchman-cynthia","literary_contributors-wilson-melody"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/novusliterary.com\/2025-archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/Novus-Feb-25-Yatchman_Cynthia_GelliBrilliant1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/novusliterary.com\/2025-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/novusliterary.com\/2025-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/novusliterary.com\/2025-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novusliterary.com\/2025-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novusliterary.com\/2025-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5679"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/novusliterary.com\/2025-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5681,"href":"https:\/\/novusliterary.com\/2025-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5679\/revisions\/5681"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novusliterary.com\/2025-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/novusliterary.com\/2025-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novusliterary.com\/2025-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novusliterary.com\/2025-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5679"},{"taxonomy":"art_contributors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novusliterary.com\/2025-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/art_contributors?post=5679"},{"taxonomy":"literary_contributors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novusliterary.com\/2025-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/literary_contributors?post=5679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}