{"id":1881,"date":"2021-09-14T16:17:43","date_gmt":"2021-09-14T23:17:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/?p=1881"},"modified":"2025-03-04T11:20:03","modified_gmt":"2025-03-04T19:20:03","slug":"the-collector-by-suzanne-highland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/the-collector-by-suzanne-highland\/","title":{"rendered":"“The Collector” by Suzanne Highland"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Willow<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Found in Willow Springs 83<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back to Author Profile<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

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“The Collector” by Suzanne Highland<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

When you came close enough, I wore you like a raincoat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Black lakes, big hands, a party<\/p>\n\n\n\n

you ignored me at. When asked to define dreams<\/p>\n\n\n\n

you drew a circle and wrote FEARS<\/p>\n\n\n\n

in it. I kept your baby photos, empty bottles<\/p>\n\n\n\n

in my wine rack, kept reaching<\/p>\n\n\n\n

into my bag for a hole at the bottom<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I might\u2019ve missed. They say trashing magazines<\/p>\n\n\n\n

can do the trick\u2014get rid of what does not bring you<\/p>\n\n\n\n

closer. I cut the mouths out of advertisements,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

blacked out<\/p>\n\n\n\n

nearly everything:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You                             a lake<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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

You at the party and I call and call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If I were a street sign I\u2019d be<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No Dumping Allowed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I\u2019m not a street sign. Me at the bottom of a hill<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and you with a dog and he\u2019s pulling on you to<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s go. We used to make collecting<\/p>\n\n\n\n

a habit, our cups in the cabinet, stacked<\/p>\n\n\n\n

by season. In summer I used to drink from your<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christmas mug, but now you have it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\nhttps:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/332\/2021\/09\/The-Collector-For-Tributaries.m4a<\/a><\/audio>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":23834,"featured_media":1870,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wpo365_audiences":[],"wpo365_private":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1881"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23834"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1881"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1881\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38934,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1881\/revisions\/38934"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}