{"id":130521,"date":"2023-09-02T13:33:34","date_gmt":"2023-09-02T17:33:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/?p=130521"},"modified":"2023-09-02T22:42:59","modified_gmt":"2023-09-03T02:42:59","slug":"1-pm-basil-is-a-five-letter-word-for-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/2023\/09\/1-pm-basil-is-a-five-letter-word-for-love\/","title":{"rendered":"1 PM – Basil is a Five Letter Word for Love"},"content":{"rendered":"

My friend proposed to her girlfriend the same day I was driving cross country in silence,<\/p>\n

the cab cologne of basil leaves fills the truck.<\/p>\n

It’s the freshest air I’ve tasted,<\/p>\n

now that I’m used to living in the city.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I am picturing the fresh basil leaves from her garden,<\/p>\n

pressed against white sheets.<\/p>\n

Shaped like a heart–<\/p>\n

And how she said yes.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Love isn’t like the movies, it’s better.<\/p>\n

Specific and imperfect.<\/p>\n

The pang of admiration I felt seeing that post.<\/p>\n

How she didn’t need roses or money to have love fill her life.<\/p>\n

My inner monologue reading the words ‘bay-zil leaves’ in my southern accent.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I reminisce how the cats tried to eat each leaf of the plant next to me,<\/p>\n

how you would pluck a few for meals, teeth marks and all.<\/p>\n

Nurturing your plant babies with each pruning,<\/p>\n

your green thumb keeping time with each pulse of\u00a0syllables and how they sound when you say ‘ba-z-i-l-l’<\/p>\n

and my worry of your approval when I say it my way.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The heat threatening my thought<\/p>\n

with each bump,<\/p>\n

I won’t hear your feet hit the hard wood each morning.<\/p>\n

Each box in back,<\/p>\n

a space you will no longer fill.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The tendrils lean into me while I push the pedal to the floor.<\/p>\n

I continue east, knowing the sun will rise with you.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

My friend proposed to her girlfriend the same day I was driving cross country in silence, the cab cologne of basil leaves fills the truck. It’s the freshest air I’ve tasted, now that I’m used to living in the city.   I am picturing the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4777,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-130521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4777"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130521"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":130982,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130521\/revisions\/130982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}