{"id":206,"date":"2025-04-17T00:03:32","date_gmt":"2025-04-17T00:03:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/20-2\/?page_id=206"},"modified":"2025-04-24T00:11:27","modified_gmt":"2025-04-24T00:11:27","slug":"rituals-of-the-city","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/20-2\/poetry\/rituals-of-the-city\/","title":{"rendered":"Rituals of the City"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Dyson Smith<\/span><\/p>\n

LOVER the rituals of the city are not working on me I walk around the city bleaching myself to an uneven sunburn I have tried it all the brisket that taste like charcoal live music with my feet in burnt grass the bronze capitol building or the art museum I even tried it to the cord of three times in a single day to no success the exhibits stayed the same and started to scorn my presence paintings spitting pastel\u2019s down my back in passing I tried the weird museum its offsetting sacrilege weirdness offset me <\/span>I tried Boudin from a street vendor cigarettes without the tobacco tax\u00a0 Echolocation using the crosswalk intercom to orient myself in the right direction right direction I tried Traditionalism the American Dream going to church and believing I was desired in a place that makes you better that I could be fixed like a house cat and believe in something that would recentralize my gaze\u00a0 a set piece I tried the right way sticking to a strict workout regimen counting calories stretching in the morning still going<\/span> to church putting jewelry on skincare these means <\/span>tastes<\/span> modern efforts I tried the wrong way <\/span>as well<\/span> and don\u2019t want to elucidate what my version of the wrong way entails I even tried submission giving myself up to a mechanical bull and letting him throw me around for a moment being obedient to a desolate technology to belong to some other animal amongst this robot war to no avail so I tried opposition to become an antonym I\u2019m trying to say I tried domination I sought to own the city stomp around it and wa<\/span>lk with a weight where people knew not to fuck with me flask\u00a0 hanging from my beltloop spitting <\/span>flem<\/span> then gum glob then chewing tobacco running topless screaming the same ballad by Whiskey Myers on repeat on repeat on repeat A COUPLE OF PRETTY FLOWERS IS WHAT I BROUGHT FOR YOU at the end of this run I will be six miles older I am approaching the trailhead of the Lady Bird Lake Loop LOVER it is now that I realized this life is not the same without you it is ritualistic LOVER I have been spoiled with your lov<\/span>e and good company LOVER I want to go in a small canoe with you and help the worlds pretty LOVER you are sparkling you are a sparkle<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>
<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Dyson Smith LOVER the rituals of the city are not working on me I walk around the city bleaching myself to an uneven sunburn I have tried it all the brisket that taste like charcoal live music with my feet in burnt grass the bronze capitol building or the art museum I even tried… Continue Reading Rituals of the City<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":0,"parent":21,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"elementor_theme","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-206","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/20-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/20-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/20-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/20-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/86"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/20-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/20-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":261,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/20-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/206\/revisions\/261"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/20-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/20-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}