{"id":2059,"date":"2012-10-29T22:04:02","date_gmt":"2012-10-30T03:04:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.celticharper.com\/blog\/?p=2059"},"modified":"2012-10-29T22:04:02","modified_gmt":"2012-10-30T03:04:02","slug":"3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.celticharper.com\/blog\/?p=2059","title":{"rendered":"3…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bit of a longer one today; but heck, we are counting down to National NOVEL writing month, after all.<\/em><\/p>\n

No Place Like Home
\nor, War: A Child’s Picture Book<\/strong><\/p>\n

Seized by indecision,
\nthis is how the raven went:
\nupstairs, downstairs
\nall around the town
\nIn through the out door
\nquoth the poet, \u201cNevermore!\u201d
\nThis is where we start from:
\nother people’s leavings<\/p>\n

If I were a goldfish
\nI would learn to speak French
\nwith a German accent
\nunderwater in the rain<\/p>\n

Can you feel it falling,
\nfeel it falling underwater,
\nunderwater in the rain?<\/p>\n

This is how the bullets fell:
\none, two, one two
\nand through and through
\nwhizzing like firecrackers
\npopping like candy corn
\nlights bright as Ferris wheels
\nall the wheels turning<\/p>\n

Wheels turning in the mud
\nheels churning in the mud
\nat sunset dirt can look like blood
\nall the fields burning<\/p>\n

This is where the acorns grew,
\nhere the apples, there the corn
\nThis is where they picked the flowers
\nwhen her little girl was born
\nand all the boys were laughing<\/p>\n

The boys were playing in the hay
\nthe girls chased them all away
\nand the sleek black birds were watching,
\nwatching from the cherry trees
\nflags unfurling in the breeze
\nsound of thunder on the hills
\nand all the birds were flapping
\ntattered wings against a battered sky
\nCotton candy turned to smoke
\nand everything was burning
\nWhite sails on black water yearning,
\nyearning for the shore
\nWaves like handshakes turned
\nto backhand slaps against the
\nstoic rocks who stand in ever
\nfailing lines against the upstart crackerjacks
\nand their terrible machines<\/p>\n

This is where the bakery
\nput the pies on sills to cool
\nHere is where the farrier
\nsoothed the skittish horses
\nOnce a road is now a dim
\nreminder of a journey
\nbarely visible against
\nthe trenches and the craters
\nslowly filling, slowly spilling
\nover runnels in the rain<\/p>\n

Can you hear it?
\nCan you hear it
\nunderneath the constant
\nmurmur, whine and hum?
\nThe quiet dripping
\nwater slipping
\nfrom the eavestroughs
\nfrom the lips of empty stone<\/p>\n

It’s true, just as she said it was,
\nthat little girl from Kansas:
\nThere’s no place like it, anymore
\nno place at all like home.<\/p>\n

-T.H. (with apologies to Poe, Seuss & Lewis Carroll)
\n(Patchwork journal, July 2012)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bit of a longer one today; but heck, we are counting down to National NOVEL writing month, after all. No Place Like Home or, War: A Child’s Picture Book Seized by indecision, this is how the raven went: upstairs, downstairs … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[810,820,822,808,809,821],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.celticharper.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2059"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.celticharper.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.celticharper.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.celticharper.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.celticharper.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2059"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.celticharper.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2059\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2062,"href":"http:\/\/www.celticharper.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2059\/revisions\/2062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.celticharper.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.celticharper.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.celticharper.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}