Though the shades are closed, vertical blinds obscuring the view,
\nI well know what lies behind them.
\nOut there, in my yard, lives
\nA grand Valencia orange tree 35 years old or more
\nThat branches from the house to wall in a triangular
\nPatch of dirt amidst the concrete.
\nAnd kitty corner is the tangerine tree, frailer than her
\nCompanion citrus tree but her fruit is sweeter.
\nShe\u2019s younger than her cousin.
\nIn the southwestern corner of the yard are the rose bushes
\nOne tall white rosed tree and one red sickly
\nShe may suffer disease or rot, maybe bugs
\nAnd in the corner in the deep recess of abutting walls
\nReigns the queen ficus, wild, unruly, with bursting roots
\nUprooting everything in her way, concrete, cinder, and earth.
\nShe buries bird nests and Edison wires within her bushy hair
\nAlong the wall between the tangerine and lemon tree
\nLive a tangle of tomato plants, beefsteaks, cherries, and romas
\nOverrun nearly, by champagne grape vines grown over
\nAnd under my window, sentries to the morning, two small trees
\nThat bloom pink peonies, peppering green leaves.
\nBeneath them, in the cool dirt, lies the Husky pup, Goosey Loose.
\nWho\u2019ll soon lift herself on sleepy legs to crawl through
\nThe doggie door, pause at the entryway before hopping into bed with me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Though the shades are closed, vertical blinds obscuring the view, I well know what lies behind them. Out there, in my yard, lives A grand Valencia orange tree 35 years old or more That branches from the house to wall in a triangular Patch of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":196,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,441],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem","category-poetry-prompt-responses"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42941","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\/196"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42941"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42946,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42941\/revisions\/42946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}