{"id":6892,"date":"2020-12-14T18:18:02","date_gmt":"2020-12-14T18:18:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/?p=6892"},"modified":"2020-12-14T19:34:30","modified_gmt":"2020-12-14T19:34:30","slug":"pandemic-poems-licking-my-wounds-writing-verse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/?p=6892","title":{"rendered":"NOVEL DREAD *Pandemic Poems* Licking my wounds, Writing verse"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cA wounded deer leaps the highest.\u201d-Emily Dickinson<\/p>\n

That’s all I got. Poetry. It’s enough, it sustains me. I’m not deliberately writing about the pandemic or this past year of heartache and dread but naturally one’s preoccupations well up from the subconscious. Take good care of your good selves my pretties.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

PUNK NUN<\/strong><\/p>\n

She lives well
\nIn this below,
\nCast out,
\nSheltered in place,
\nFallow, content,<\/p>\n

Sobered by conditions,
\nWinter bare
\nLimbs in place,
\nStirrings put to rest,
\nApart and rooted at last.<\/p>\n

Above the maelstrom
\nBeyond pangs, chastity,
\nFallers\/timber tramps
\nAnd snares of the past;
\nDisconcerting desire,
\nElusive union.<\/p>\n

Vying as little as necessary,
\nShy in nature,
\nShe could not attach,
\nEach coupling, grafting, ruined.<\/p>\n

Called \u201cTree\u201d
\nShe had budded late
\nThough normally enough.
\nRarely penetrated
\nThough impaled repeatedly,
\nConceptions sloughed,
\nIntimacy a confabulation,
\nContortionist offerings spurned,<\/p>\n

For when she spoke
\nHer paramour did not hear.
\nWhen she entreated
\nHe did not respond
\nWith tenderness nor sustenance
\nBut rather, grizzled calculations.
\nWhen she wept
\nHe promptly left the building,
\nRendering her mute,
\nAll clarity in his wake.<\/p>\n

All that past now.
\nShe lives well
\nIn this below,
\nCast out,
\nSheltered in place,
\nFallow, content,
\nSobered by conditions,
\nWinter bare
\nLimbs in place,
\nStirrings put to rest,
\nApart and rooted at last.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

NOVEL DREAD<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our newly acquired reflex
\nIs to move away
\nThe moment someone,
\nAnyone, approaches.
\nNo time to waffle!<\/p>\n

A novel dread of others encroaches.
\nI\u2019ve often feared others
\nBut now have more good reason.
\nShe might be asymptomatic.
\nI might be asymptomatic!<\/p>\n

We are all shady,
\nQuestionable,
\nPossibly bandits
\nBehind the gaiters,
\nLoitering in the lobby,
\nLone carollers,
\nSolo celebrants.
\nPartay<\/em>!
\nNo longer an option.<\/p>\n

Nostalgia attack.
\nI can feel him beside me
\nWhen I close my eyes,
\nTry to sleep at night,
\nAdept as he was
\nAt removing himself,
\nEven as we lay together.<\/p>\n

Desire for oblivion runs<\/em> deep.
\nWe craved solitude,
\nWished to be alone
\nAnd now, utterly alone,
\nMasked, gloved, concealed,
\nI wonder
\nHow autonomy survives
\nA mandate to flee one another.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  \u201cA wounded deer leaps the highest.\u201d-Emily Dickinson That’s all I got. Poetry. It’s enough, it sustains me. I’m not deliberately writing about the pandemic or this past year of heartache and dread but naturally one’s preoccupations well up from the subconscious. Take good care of your good selves my pretties.   PUNK NUN She […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[149,452],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6892"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6892"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6892\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6905,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6892\/revisions\/6905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}