SHE AND I<\/p>\n
Sitting by the stilled pond, I am startled
\nby the earnest green eyes gazing up through me
\nto the tall pine tree, imposing trustee
\nof my childhood home and innocence.<\/p>\n
She is nine, has just learned how tender
\nher guileless heart toward a young kid in need,
\nthe joy of its gamboled frolic at her
\napproach. She gazes skyward<\/p>\n
never imagining herself salt-and-peppered,
\nawed still by the promise of nature
\nas in her youth. I quell an urge to touch her cheek,
\nthe soft slope of its sadness dragging her down,<\/p>\n
unnoticed, into \u2018not good enough.’ from invisibility into tangible life — none a tall pine, but grand enough sarahw<\/p>\n Not a letter, but true to the prompt in other respects. I wrote this poem years ago in response to a different-but-similar prompt and really like the way it turned out. And, right now, my eyes are burning from so much screen time that I’m needing a break.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" SHE AND I Sitting by the stilled pond, I am startled by the earnest green eyes gazing up through me to the tall pine tree, imposing trustee of my childhood home and innocence. She is nine, has just learned how tender her guileless heart toward…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1122,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-half-marathon-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52728","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\/1122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52728"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52773,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52728\/revisions\/52773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nFor what,<\/em> I want to ask? Good enough,
\nI want her to see, to have lived
\nsixty years more emerged<\/p>\n
\nour three children — whom I suddenly wish
\nshe could befriend.\u00a0 I raise my own eyes
\nto the trees ringing the pond<\/p>\n
\nto take me back to these roots,
\nmy natural loves twined together
\nlike our images on the pond\u2019s surface.<\/p>\n