Dan Encarnacion
LENITIVE MAN: from “Hominids”

(1) ..the quality or condition of being tortuous;….twistedness, ..crookedness,
sinuosity; an instance of this — (2)…figuratively mental … .. .. … … or moral

crookedness — (3)..an instance of this; or something……………. ……………that
exemplifies it, a twisted or crooked object,…. ….. … …..a twist, turn, winding:

tortuosity — what………. …. ….. …….can be examined in the fundus of the eye
through an opthalmoscope —…………….only place on the human body where

microcirculation can be directly observed .— .hemorrhages, exudates, cotton
wool spots, blood vessel abnormalities:. pulsations and, the aforementioned,

tortuosity ………… …… …………fourteen years old — first complete physical —
pressed firmly cheek-to-cheek — told me…..  …. .. …. to look away to the side

away from the light — … .. … … .. ..did not want him to remove his face — his
wet breath — sensed …. …. …. ……. his lips ajar — balls — on one knee — arm

wrapped my waist —… . .. .. ..my arm wrapped his shoulders — no glove — to
pull him tighter

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Dan Encarnacion earned an MFA in Writing at the California College of Arts and lives in Portland, Oregon. Dan has been recently published in Word Riot, Eleven Eleven, Upstairs At Duroc, and/or, The Blue Mesa Review, Assaracus, Blackbox Manifold, and has work forthcoming in The Los Angeles Review and Whiskey Island. He was the featured artist for Reconnaissance Magazine’s 2013 issue and is included in the anthology Reduce: A Collection of Writings from Educe Journal 2012 (Educe Press).

Image credit: “Man in pelvis cloth performing contortions” by Eadweard Muybridge, 1887

Read more from Cleaver Magazine’s Issue #7.