As a child you played in the dirt<\/p>\n
making mud pies for your daddy,<\/p>\n
teasin’ momma with the wigglin’ worms<\/p>\n
you were a mighty dinosaur, eating trees made of broccoli<\/p>\n
growing like a weed<\/p>\n
in the dirt<\/p>\n
Helping your grandma pick the berries,<\/p>\n
one for the bucket and one for your sugar stained tongue<\/p>\n
even the sweet peas and tomatoes tasted better, fresh from the garden,<\/p>\n
the dirt rubbed off on your jeans<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
You happily roamed through the labyrinth rows<\/p>\n
pretending to be the lost princess of The Great Beyond<\/p>\n
no goblins, no bears to catch you unawares<\/p>\n
because your dog patrolled this patch of land<\/p>\n
he marked it as his which in turn made it yours<\/p>\n
the sunshine warmed ground was the best place in town<\/p>\n
for a nap with your best friend<\/p>\n
suddenly you found a tougher go -round<\/p>\n
and “dirt nap” took on a different meaning<\/p>\n
but you were tough and you didn’t cry<\/p>\n
when they put grandpa to sleep<\/p>\n
his watch, yours now, forever to keep<\/p>\n
Daddy got lost, he and momma split up<\/p>\n
your world whorled wholly out of your control<\/p>\n
you left your farm home, decided to roam and find more meanings in life<\/p>\n
you found the grass wasn’t grass, but a hoe was still a hoe<\/p>\n
and it raked at your soul, you found the dirt<\/p>\n
you dug in and smiled ’cause after a while you just couldn’t stay clean<\/p>\n
sleeping in laundry rooms, eating the trash<\/p>\n
selling your body<\/p>\n
’cause you needed the cash<\/p>\n
you dug deeper for dragons and fairies in green<\/p>\n
purposely dulling your senses ’cause the streets were too mean<\/p>\n
Then one day you saw her, or maybe not<\/p>\n
looked like your momma, through your head full of snot<\/p>\n
the body was older, the figure was lean<\/p>\n
but the eyes when they lighted on you, what a gleam!<\/p>\n
she knew it was you from the very first glance<\/p>\n
she grabbed at your hand and she pulled you away<\/p>\n
said\u00a0you’re coming home, you’re coming to stay<\/em><\/p>\n grandma was gone, daddy’d died too<\/p>\n so much had happened while you weren’t you<\/p>\n away from your friends, mostly guilt dragged you through<\/p>\n but as the days wore on she got through to you<\/p>\n This land<\/em> she said,\u00a0this land is our land<\/em><\/p>\n yours and mine too\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n we’ll work it together just like before<\/em><\/p>\n but this place is our homeland, it deserves your respect<\/em><\/p>\n you love it, protect it or get out the door<\/em><\/p>\n I been here now twenty years, maybe more<\/p>\n This land is my home, I’ve opened it to you<\/p>\n The dirt’s a lot cleaner than cities or towns<\/p>\n you’ll understand the magic if we’ve children around<\/p>\n for no matter where,<\/p>\n how far, or how long<\/p>\n the lands filled with sirens<\/p>\n forever singing their song<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As a child you played in the dirt making mud pies for your daddy, teasin’ momma with the wigglin’ worms you were a mighty dinosaur, eating trees made of broccoli growing like a weed in the dirt Helping your grandma pick the berries, one for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1235,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,2114],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem","category-official-marathon-announcement"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54246","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\/1235"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54246"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54659,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54246\/revisions\/54659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}