{"id":95795,"date":"2021-06-26T18:56:20","date_gmt":"2021-06-26T22:56:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/?p=95795"},"modified":"2021-06-26T20:10:57","modified_gmt":"2021-06-27T00:10:57","slug":"poem-10-sacred-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/2021\/06\/poem-10-sacred-heart\/","title":{"rendered":"Poem 10: Sacred Heart"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sacred Heart\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We wake to the songbirds painting their warbles and trills<\/p>\n

on the morning canvas, we listen to their fluted songs<\/p>\n

from our bed, or after breakfast when we take our coffee<\/p>\n

like a salvation ritual on the deck. You say you\u2019re glad<\/p>\n

the chicken hawks have gone away at last, you\u2019d been considering<\/p>\n

buying a pellet gun to pick them off one by one, like a kid<\/p>\n

with a bb gun shoots bullfrogs at a summer pond. We\u2019ve<\/p>\n

never owned a gun, but when I picked up the binoculars that last time<\/p>\n

my dad was here to see if it was a squirrel calling from a nearest tree<\/p>\n

I saw a chicken hawk close up ripping the chest out of a little brown bird,<\/p>\n

and I wanted the hawk dead. The hawks eat the bird\u2019s heart<\/p>\n

and chest and lets the head and feathers fall to the ground.<\/p>\n

Before that, I thought a heap of feathers on the path<\/p>\n

in the wild wooded part of our yard spelled a cat. I tell you<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

the songbirds\u2019 return feels like a fairy tale, the village mice<\/p>\n

have come out of hiding, they\u2019re celebrating the bad wolf\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

What I don\u2019t tell you is I\u2019m relieved each morning your body is warm<\/p>\n

and you\u2019re breathing. I\u2019m glad you can roll out of bed and head<\/p>\n

for the kitchen. I\u2019m glad when I reached for you this morning<\/p>\n

I did not touch a cold clay shell of a man. I know how that feels.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t remember my dreams, but I\u2019ll bet I dream of the morning<\/p>\n

ten years ago, your chest gripped by thistles robbing your breath,<\/p>\n

my 911 call, the six men with heavy gear rushing in minutes later,<\/p>\n

carrying you from the top of the split entry stairs where you waited<\/p>\n

like a schoolboy to the living room then out the door<\/p>\n

to Sacred Heart. You carried my sacred heart to the ER.<\/p>\n

I followed dumbly behind you down Grand in the dark<\/p>\n

early morning, thinking I might not ever see you again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sacred Heart\u00a0   We wake to the songbirds painting their warbles and trills on the morning canvas, we listen to their fluted songs from our bed, or after breakfast when we take our coffee like a salvation ritual on the deck. You say you\u2019re glad…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3235,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-half-marathon-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95795","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\/3235"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95795"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96962,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95795\/revisions\/96962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}