“I must confess it was the slice of skin made visible by the deficit between the bottom of your shirt and the top of your pants that first caught my eye. Then I noticed just how round your belly was. It was as if the gods scooped it from a tub of tummy then molded in their hands to create a perfect sphere of flesh. It was so round and so out there that I really, really, wanted to run up to you and touch it. I wanted to slap it between my hands, to be more precise. I resisted, though my urge was strong. I wonder if this same feeling, the virtual tingling of my hands urging me, “touch it, touch it,” is what the straight-haired strangers who plunged uninvited hands into my hair were feeling….”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“I must confess it was the slice of skin made visible by the deficit between the bottom of your shirt and the top of your pants that first caught my eye. Then I noticed just how round your belly was. It was as if the gods scooped it from a tub of tummy then molded […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[331],"tags":[477,478,479,480,481],"class_list":["post-2584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-open-letters","tag-belly","tag-impulse-control","tag-touching","tag-tummy","tag-urges","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p33KTw-FG","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4765,"url":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/2016\/06\/in-an-open-letter-to-the-woman-with-the-exposed-belly\/","url_meta":{"origin":2584,"position":0},"title":"In an open letter to the woman with the exposed belly,","author":"sherlonya","date":"June 5, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cYour tummy looks like a ham hock.\u201d","rel":"","context":"In "summer"","block_context":{"text":"summer","link":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/category\/summer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3292,"url":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/2014\/02\/in-an-open-letter-to-the-man-with-the-impressively-round-belly\/","url_meta":{"origin":2584,"position":1},"title":"In an open letter to the man with the impressively round belly,","author":"sherlonya","date":"February 20, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cYour proud, round, sun-kissed belly reminds me of some rolls I made once. They were so warm, and buttery. They were fragrant and sweet, and they tasted like love. Now, my mouth is watering and I don\u2019t know how to feel about that\u2026.\u201d","rel":"","context":"In \"open letters\"","block_context":{"text":"open letters","link":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/tag\/open-letters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5132,"url":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/2017\/08\/in-an-open-letter-to-the-man-with-the-watermelon-belly-seeded-not-seedless\/","url_meta":{"origin":2584,"position":2},"title":"In an open letter to the man with the watermelon belly, seeded, not seedless,","author":"sherlonya","date":"August 4, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cI did not appreciate that you grunted in disappointment when in response to an aggressive wind I held the hem of my dress. When your disapproving noise caught my attention, I looked at you to find you staring directly at my lap. I did not like that either\u2026.\u201d","rel":"","context":"In \"open letters\"","block_context":{"text":"open letters","link":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/tag\/open-letters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4648,"url":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/2016\/01\/in-an-open-letter-to-any-of-alexs-future-teachers\/","url_meta":{"origin":2584,"position":3},"title":"In an open letter to any of Alex\u2019s future teachers,","author":"sherlonya","date":"January 21, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cIf he sees your belly meat, he is going to tell me about it.\u201d","rel":"","context":"In \"open letters\"","block_context":{"text":"open letters","link":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/tag\/open-letters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1604,"url":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/2012\/03\/garlic-tomato-olive-and-basil-bread\/","url_meta":{"origin":2584,"position":4},"title":"Garlic, Tomato, Olive and Basil Bread","author":"sherlonya","date":"March 4, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I suppose that I could have named this post \"Even More Bread.\" Anyway, last week I came across the recipe for Spicy Garlic Bread. I knew that I would make it. See, I like to make bread, and now that I make it regularly, I dislike buying it. I also\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "cooking"","block_context":{"text":"cooking","link":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/category\/cooking\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/IMG_12871-1024x764.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2968,"url":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/2013\/10\/in-an-open-letter-to-rutherford-b-hayes\/","url_meta":{"origin":2584,"position":5},"title":"In an open letter to Rutherford B. Hayes,","author":"sherlonya","date":"October 1, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201c\u201dI have to confess that your beard has always reminded me of Shredded Wheat cereal. This reminds me of a man at the gym who\u2019s moustache makes me think of coarsely-ground coffee beans. President Hayes, on second thought, this might not be about you at all.\u201d","rel":"","context":"In "obsessions"","block_context":{"text":"obsessions","link":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/category\/obsessions\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2584\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}