{"id":4032,"date":"2020-02-07T15:53:35","date_gmt":"2020-02-07T23:53:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/?p=4032"},"modified":"2026-03-17T11:20:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T18:20:33","slug":"shinny-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/shinny-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Shinny"},"content":{"rendered":"

This poem will undoubtedly recall to some readers the famous Frost poem <\/em>Birches. <\/em><\/span>Honestly, it has little to do with it. <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, <\/em>Shinny concerns a somewhat older boy than Frost had in mind, one for whom the upper branches of a neighborhood tree were the perfect place to perpetrate a secretive adolescent rite we all practice but never admit to. There is a clearer statement of the events in question in another poem of mine,\u00a0<\/em>Gladiola<\/a>.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

I have marked it a sonnet, though its fourteen lines are in slant-rhymed couplets, not any of the traditional sonnet forms.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

I was a boy myself once so\u00a0don\u2019t need
much told me about trees. I know to hide
in their boughs and filch their illicit fruit
before it falls to the ground and takes root.
I know to shinny up high then clamber
to where branches thin and the climber
feels a pit suddenly yawn in his guts,
up where twigs extend to buds, where height hurts.
Something about a tree doesn\u2019t really mind
the theft of its fruit. A tree is resigned
to a boy\u00a0swaying in his tenuous
crotch, dizzy at his chosen precipice.
Something about a tree wants to be climbed.
Something about a boy wants to climb it.<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Curated by Bloomin’ Onion 2026]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This poem will undoubtedly recall to some readers the famous Frost poem Birches. Honestly, it has little to do with it. In fact, Shinny concerns a somewhat older boy than Frost had in mind, one for whom the upper branches of a neighborhood tree were the perfect place to perpetrate a secretive adolescent rite we … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Shinny”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[15,25,85,8,18],"class_list":["post-4032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","tag-aging","tag-erotic-poetry","tag-masturbation","tag-memories","tag-sonnet"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4032"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4032\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5315,"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4032\/revisions\/5315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}