{"id":1247,"date":"2011-09-11T15:28:35","date_gmt":"2011-09-11T15:28:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/?p=1247"},"modified":"2011-09-11T22:38:06","modified_gmt":"2011-09-11T22:38:06","slug":"holy-water-by-keith-hoerner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/holy-water-by-keith-hoerner\/","title":{"rendered":"Holy Water by Keith Hoerner"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/mary.png\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1248 aligncenter\" title=\"mary\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/mary-233x300.png?resize=233%2C300\" alt=\"\" width=\"233\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/mary.png?resize=233%2C300&amp;ssl=1 233w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/mary.png?w=390&amp;ssl=1 390w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 233px) 100vw, 233px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\">Holy Water<\/h1>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">?by Keith Hoerner<\/p>\n<p>I stand at the kitchen sink washing the one thing I took from home after you died: The Madonna and Child statue I meditated on kneeling before you ? being beaten, traumatized, loving you, year after year.<\/p>\n<p>I wash it gently, remembering the time you unknowingly soaked a statue of St. Joseph ? carved out of salt ?in a sink of warm water.<\/p>\n<p>You did not realize it would dissolve, desert you like your man-made religion. Only to return later, pushing your hands through the milky-white water, confused, almost frantic, as you thrashed about in search of what you had laid there.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">###<\/p>\n<p>Keith Hoerner is a recent MFA-in-Writing Graduate who is enjoying a foray into teaching after a successful sales and marketing career. A St. Louisan, his recent work can be read in Mid Rivers Review and Untamed Ink.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Holy Water ?by Keith Hoerner I stand at the kitchen sink washing the one thing I took from home after you died: The Madonna and Child statue I meditated on kneeling before you ? being beaten, traumatized, loving you, year after year. I wash it gently, remembering the time you unknowingly soaked a statue of&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[86],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1247"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1255,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1247\/revisions\/1255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}