She stared at the stone arch for hours after he left.
\nAt the field beyond, and the tree.<\/p>\n
The single tree where he first stole her kiss,
\nHer heart, and her sainthood.<\/p>\n
The single, innocent tree
\nAbout to be murdered by her husband.<\/p>\n
“I shall burn it until the flames light\u00a0the dungeons of hell!”
\nHe screamed.<\/p>\n
Her husband. Her old, worn out husband,
\nWith the breath of a dragon and the heart of a wasp.<\/p>\n
Her husband. The one who paid for her\u00a0in gold, five\u00a0stones,
\nBefore she got too old.<\/p>\n
Her husband. Who could no more give her a child than could
\nA cuke left too long in the sun.<\/p>\n
“He’s not coming back, wench.” he screamed. “he’s on to the next
\nRipe fruit, to lay bare and pluck.<\/p>\n
She stood, barely listening to his feeble rage. His voice,
\nHardly\u00a0a whisper of the bellowing old goat he once was,
\nRattled like a bat in a cage.<\/p>\n
There was a child in her womb. Not her husbands, but his.
\nShe stared at the distant gate, beyond which lay her peace
\nIn a welcome grave of peasantry.<\/p>\n
He said he would meet her there. She had to believe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
She stared at the stone arch for hours after he left. At the field beyond, and the tree. The single tree where he first stole her kiss, Her heart, and her sainthood. The single, innocent tree About to be murdered by her husband. “I shall…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":189,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,441],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9936","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\/9936","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\/189"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9936"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9936\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10254,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9936\/revisions\/10254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}