The man behind the counter
\nhas a drinking problem<\/p>\n
He ignores me
\nI leave<\/p>\n
In the middle of the grassy field
\non the other side of the chain-link fence
\nan old woman, wrapped in blankets and shawls
\nrocks in her chair
\noblivious to everything<\/p>\n
Next to the field
\nan abandoned freight car
\nsits on now unused tracks<\/p>\n
I look inside
\nit is empty, except for a black stove
\nand a manual typewriter<\/p>\n
Walking back towards the field
\nI find a small piece of paper
\nby the fence<\/p>\n
On it are printed three words:<\/p>\n
lurks
\nahead
\n1<\/b><\/p>\n
Suddenly, everything is bright
\nas though I have just awakened
\nand my eyes have not had time to adjust<\/p>\n
I rub my eyes
\nwhen I look at the piece of paper again
\nit has changed:<\/p>\n
lurks
\nahead
\n6<\/b><\/p>\n
I shrug, and put it in my pocket<\/p>\n
But when I take it out again
\nit has changed:<\/p>\n
lurks
\nahead
\n7<\/b><\/p>\n
I rub my eyes and look again:<\/p>\n
lurks
\nahead
\n8<\/b><\/p>\n
And again:<\/p>\n
lurks
\nahead
\n9<\/b><\/p>\n
I crumple up the paper
\nand stuff it in my pocket<\/p>\n
What could this mean?<\/p>\n
I look out at the field:
\nthe old woman in the rocking chair
\nis gone<\/p>\n
Am I in the right place?<\/p>\n
I turn around\u2014
\nthe freight car is now gone
\nthe typewriter has been left between the rails<\/p>\n
I cross the street
\nand make my way back to the ticket counter<\/p>\n
The young woman on duty
\ntells me the flight to Cincinnati
\nis leaving now<\/p>\n
The man in the next line
\nis carrying nine copies of TIME magazine<\/p>\n
He looks at me and shrugs<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
(22 June 2019, Hour Five)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The man behind the counter has a drinking problem He ignores me I leave In the middle of the grassy field on the other side of the chain-link fence an old woman, wrapped in blankets and shawls rocks in her chair oblivious to everything Next…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":793,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[128,2771,1163,2798,2929],"class_list":["post-49602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-half-marathon-poem","tag-hour-5","tag-june-2019","tag-kevin-j-oconner","tag-poetry-marathon-2019","tag-prompt-dream"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49602","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\/793"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49602"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49620,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49602\/revisions\/49620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}