{"id":34414,"date":"2017-08-05T13:42:04","date_gmt":"2017-08-05T17:42:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/?p=34414"},"modified":"2017-08-05T13:42:04","modified_gmt":"2017-08-05T17:42:04","slug":"hour-5-the-hayloft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/2017\/08\/hour-5-the-hayloft\/","title":{"rendered":"Hour 5: The Hayloft"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Hayloft<\/p>\n<p>We entered the barn<br \/>\nthough grandpa\u2019s workroom<br \/>\nsmelling strongly of engine oil<br \/>\nThen past the old milking stanchions<br \/>\nempty from before I could remember<br \/>\nFinally, ultimately, up the ladder<br \/>\nMade of wide boards and<br \/>\nattached to the end of a feedbox<br \/>\nDifficult to maneuver and scary<br \/>\nSometimes I couldn\u2019t make it<br \/>\nEspecially the awkward step at the top<br \/>\na right angle from ladder to loft<\/p>\n<p>Once there<br \/>\nthe wide expanse of the loft was freeing<br \/>\nthe roof arching high above our heads<br \/>\nwith only small amounts of hay<br \/>\nand a lingering smell of dust<br \/>\nimpeding our play<br \/>\nWhen my mother was young<br \/>\nshe and her brothers and sisters<br \/>\nplayed basketball in the echoing space<br \/>\nBut now the floor<br \/>\nwas a minefield of warped boards,<br \/>\nmissing planks, and holes<br \/>\nto watch for and carefully ease around<br \/>\na fear of heights growing in me<\/p>\n<p>At the end of the hayloft<br \/>\nthe space was open<br \/>\nto trucks and equipment stored below<br \/>\nAbove hung a rope<br \/>\nwith one large knot<br \/>\nIf you weren\u2019t a scaredy-cat<br \/>\nyou grabbed the rope<br \/>\nand swung out over the open space<br \/>\ntrusting the brothers and cousins<br \/>\nto catch you upon your return<br \/>\nI did this<br \/>\nbut not often<br \/>\nI preferred to watch<br \/>\nthe braver kids<br \/>\nwho whooped and yelled<br \/>\nand swung with abandoned<br \/>\nconfidently<\/p>\n<p>The barn still stands<br \/>\nbut the grandparents are gone<br \/>\nAnd who knows how many<br \/>\nholes have widened<br \/>\nin the wide plank floor<br \/>\nOr if the rope<br \/>\nstill dangles over<br \/>\na vast empty space<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Hayloft We entered the barn though grandpa\u2019s workroom smelling strongly of engine oil Then past the old milking stanchions empty from before I could remember Finally, ultimately, up the ladder Made of wide boards and attached to the end of a feedbox Difficult to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1047,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34414","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\/1047"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34414"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34420,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34414\/revisions\/34420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}