{"id":1247,"date":"2019-07-05T18:57:46","date_gmt":"2019-07-05T18:57:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peterschireson.com\/?p=1247"},"modified":"2023-03-21T13:30:39","modified_gmt":"2023-03-21T17:30:39","slug":"vermeer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peterschireson.com\/vermeer\/","title":{"rendered":"Vermeer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

When she was getting close <\/p>\n\n\n\n

to the end, we cached the hospice morphine <\/p>\n\n\n\n

in the fridge behind the ricotta cheese,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

in case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We moved her bed into the living room, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

where she could look out onto the Hollywood hills. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She slept and slept.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Waking, she said she\u2019d dreamed<\/p>\n\n\n\n

she was a delirious little bird,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and everything around her\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n

a fragrant field, a grey branch, a dusty road\u2014understood her. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later, she said she\u2019d dreamt <\/p>\n\n\n\n

of rope and wire, of Lv\u00f3v in the War, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

of nameless relations hiding <\/p>\n\n\n\n

with other Jews in the sewer, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

shards of skin and glass <\/p>\n\n\n\n

and skeins of hair washing away <\/p>\n\n\n\n

in gutter water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said she knew she, too, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

was washing away. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She laughed a little light laugh,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and I heard a chime at the edge of her laughter <\/p>\n\n\n\n

that puzzled me, until I understood it <\/p>\n\n\n\n

to be her feeling of having only laughter left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I found a few letters in her closet from her father, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

written in his Yiddish accent\u2014 \u201cvel\u201d scrawled for \u201cwell,\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

history in its plainest, most intimate sense. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the old country he\u2019d been well-off, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

which ended with the revolution\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n

something struck off, something stuck on,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the old secret tales, and blood in the mouth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like all children, one accepts <\/p>\n\n\n\n

that animals that die do not come back to life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After he came over, he found work as a bookkeeper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In their day, people here got used to seeing them,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

grandmother in her shawl. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were many immigrants on the boulevard,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

like now, easy to spot, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

their hazy look, like charcoal sketches, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

and their unfortunate choices of colors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Poco moto the light scatters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Outside, Los Angeles shimmers like a piano. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the ceiling over her bed, the windowpanes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

shape the lunar light into an arrangement of rectangles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I ask her if she is afraid, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She says she sat once in front of the painting <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Young Woman with a Water Pitcher<\/p>\n\n\n\n

for an hour. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it no longer troubled her,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

her inconsequential life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

When she was getting close\u00a0<\/p>\n

to the end, we cached the hospice morphine\u00a0<\/p>\n

in the fridge behind the ricotta cheese,<\/p>\n

in case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1197,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,23],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nVermeer - Peter Schireson<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/peterschireson.com\/vermeer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Vermeer - Peter Schireson\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When she was getting close\u00a0 to the end, we cached the hospice morphine\u00a0 in the fridge behind the ricotta cheese, in case.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/peterschireson.com\/vermeer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Peter Schireson\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-07-05T18:57:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-03-21T17:30:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/peterschireson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/barquillo-1024x1021.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1021\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Peter\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/peterschireson.com\/vermeer\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/peterschireson.com\/vermeer\/\",\"name\":\"Vermeer - 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