After the long journey through the night<\/p>\n
through the ink black of northern Wisconsin,<\/p>\n
through the AM stations crackling polka tunes.<\/p>\n
began the Minnesota mornings<\/p>\n
of misty rivers and dewy fields,<\/p>\n
sleepy cattle at peace in the meadows.<\/p>\n
Tired, squished and impatient children<\/p>\n
wanting release from the cramped station wagon<\/p>\n
on our way to the Farm.<\/p>\n
Our young and tired eyes<\/p>\n
kept peeled for a glimpse of Paul Bunyon<\/p>\n
or his equally elusive blue ox, Babe.<\/p>\n
Past the town where they blasted rice and corn<\/p>\n
out of a cannon\u00a0to make breakfast cereal<\/p>\n
on our way to the Farm.<\/p>\n
Childhood vacations at Grandma and Grandpa’s.<\/p>\n
Days and nights filled with nothing but<\/p>\n
– Picking raspberries,<\/p>\n
– Finding kittens in the grainery,<\/p>\n
– Hide and seek in the arboretum<\/p>\n
– Exploring the outbuildings and barn<\/p>\n
– Finding bones in the farthest rock pile<\/p>\n
– Swimming at the quarry<\/p>\n
– Counting shooting stars<\/p>\n
– Dancing in the northern lights<\/p>\n
– Playing cards<\/p>\n
– Figuring out if the electric fence was on<\/p>\n
off.<\/p>\n
Near, although several miles away.<\/p>\n
where Herbie’s bar burned to the ground this year<\/p>\n
generations of memories, now smoke.<\/p>\n
Where the Church can seat a thousand,<\/p>\n
and the population is three hundred, fifty-six.<\/p>\n
Where cousins live<\/p>\n
and family is buried.<\/p>\n
On our way to the Farm<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After the long journey through the night through the ink black of northern Wisconsin, through the AM stations crackling polka tunes. began the Minnesota mornings of misty rivers and dewy fields, sleepy cattle at peace in the meadows. Tired, squished and impatient children wanting release…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":215,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1136,441,5],"tags":[2236,680],"class_list":["post-34012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem","category-official-marathon-prompts","category-poetry-prompt-responses","category-poetry-prompts","tag-hour5","tag-poetrymarathon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34012","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\/215"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34012"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34012\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44382,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34012\/revisions\/44382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}