{"id":120,"date":"2025-10-23T23:37:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T23:37:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/?page_id=120"},"modified":"2025-11-07T22:47:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T22:47:15","slug":"unmixed","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/poetry\/unmixed\/","title":{"rendered":"Unmixed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rachael Hanley<\/span><\/p>\n

Some days<\/span><\/p>\n

I can pull it out of my chest <\/span><\/p>\n

and look at it<\/span><\/p>\n

like some extraterrestrial object.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I\u2019ve melted all the colors of paint<\/span><\/p>\n

to create my own shade of shame, <\/span><\/p>\n

coating it<\/span><\/p>\n

to papier-m\u00e2ch\u00e9 the object in my hand.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

All the blues<\/span><\/p>\n

and the greens <\/span><\/p>\n

and reds <\/span><\/p>\n

and pinks<\/span><\/p>\n

become lost<\/span><\/p>\n

in the overarching theme <\/span><\/p>\n

of what is only known to me\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

to my heart,<\/span><\/p>\n

to the object displayed in my hand.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Once something is mixed together, <\/span><\/p>\n

how do I separate the colors on the wheel?<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Beaten and bruised<\/span><\/p>\n

is what I display<\/span><\/p>\n

on the corridor of my malnourished bones.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Teeth gritting. <\/span><\/p>\n

Constant spitting. <\/span><\/p>\n

Hot showers. <\/span><\/p>\n

Scraped flesh.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Naked<\/span><\/p>\n

on asphalt.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sea salt covers the ground.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Where are the corners of the room?<\/span><\/p>\n

Where are the exits?<\/span><\/p>\n

Where is the paint?<\/span><\/p>\n

The ball in my chest?<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Why can\u2019t I see?<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

She\u2019s screaming so loud\u2014 <\/span><\/p>\n

the wind cushions my red.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

My tongue tastes my blue. <\/span><\/p>\n

Eyes see the green.<\/span><\/p>\n

But you\u2014 <\/span><\/p>\n

are the dull black<\/span><\/p>\n

covering everything.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\nRachael Hanley Some days I can pull it out of my chest and look at it like some extraterrestrial object.…\n<\/div>\n
Continue reading “Unmixed”<\/span>…<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":0,"parent":322,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-120","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/89"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":204,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/120\/revisions\/204"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}