{"id":6048,"date":"2026-04-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/novusliterary.com\/?p=6048"},"modified":"2026-04-01T23:02:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T04:02:07","slug":"physical","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/novusliterary.com\/2025-archive\/physical\/","title":{"rendered":"Physical"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<pre class=\"wp-block-verse\">              <em>Sobriety: Day 77<br><\/em><br>My doctor holds a vial of my blood up<br>to the light like a kaleidoscope, turns it,<br>shakes it, then hides it in his fist.<br>He makes a finger gun with the other hand<br>and shoots it. When he opens his fist,<br>it\u2019s gone. He pulls it back into the world<br>from behind my ear and pours my blood<br>into a dutch oven which he bakes for<br>a few minutes while he waves a divining rod<br>around my torso. \u201cHow\u2019s your spam<br>filter?\u201d he asks. I put my hand on my side.<br>\u201cI can\u2019t really feel it anymore.\u201d<br>The timer dings and when he lifts the lid<br>the whole clinic smells like goulash.<br>\u201cYour late autumn light has stabilized,\u201d<br>he says, my improvements perplexing him.<br>I inform him that I no longer partake.<br>\u201cAh, that would do it,\u201d he says.<br>\u201cYou should also limit your intake of flattery.\u201d<br>Not really a problem, I tell him.<br>\u201cI can order a CT of your lusts if you want<br>but check with your insurance first.\u201d<br>Here, he turns serious and meets my eyes<br>with a practiced air of pity.<br>\u201cI\u2019m afraid this means you\u2019re probably<br>going to live quite awhile longer.\u201d<br>I tell him I understand and begin rehearsing<br>how I\u2019m going to break this to my family.<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sobriety: Day 77My doctor holds a vial of my blood upto the light like a kaleidoscope, turns it,shakes it, then hides it in his fist.He makes a finger gun with the other handand shoots it. When he opens his fist,it\u2019s gone. He pulls it back into the worldfrom behind my ear and pours my bloodinto [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"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":[8],"tags":[],"art_contributors":[],"literary_contributors":[470],"class_list":["post-6048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","literary_contributors-rutter-chad"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/novusliterary.com\/2025-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6048","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\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novusliterary.com\/2025-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6048"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/novusliterary.com\/2025-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6048\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6049,"href":"https:\/\/novusliterary.com\/2025-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6048\/revisions\/6049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/novusliterary.com\/2025-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novusliterary.com\/2025-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novusliterary.com\/2025-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6048"},{"taxonomy":"art_contributors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novusliterary.com\/2025-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/art_contributors?post=6048"},{"taxonomy":"literary_contributors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novusliterary.com\/2025-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/literary_contributors?post=6048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}