Nibbling a Grain of Barely
\nby
\nRadiance Angelina Petro<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t want any clues.
\nOK. Maybe just one.<\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t need to be the kind that resounds
\nin my head, but don\u2019t make it the faintest echo
\neither. Don\u2019t give it in a roundabout way,
\nand don\u2019t make it come from the third
\nor fourth shout from a crow. And please, don\u2019t
\nmake it a gate with seven locks.<\/p>\n
Is it the forgotten fishing line tangled in the tree
\nby the Wissahickon Creek? Is it the old woman sweeping
\noutside the restaurant that\u2019s been in her family
\nfor three generations? Will I know it
\nif it bumps up against me? Will it be succinct?
\nWill it have a mouth and claws?<\/p>\n
You once told me you\u2019ve seen grass swaying
\nin the sea, and I won\u2019t bother asking
\nhow you managed that since you live on land,
\nbut is that somehow the clue?<\/p>\n
You tell me the universe has never been veiled, yet
\nyou tell me you\u2019ve seen a hare leaping from cloud
\nto cloud, and that you\u2019ve eaten brewer\u2019s grain
\nand hops from a sealed, metal grain bin.
\nBut where does that leave me?<\/p>\n
I know you think silent sermons are best,
\nbut I\u2019m not interested in wisdom. Listen, it\u2019s just
\nthat my heart is swarmed with questions,
\nand I\u2019m tired, my soul aches, my spirit
\nhasn\u2019t gone out in days. Wait–<\/p>\n
wait, wait, wait\u2014that\u2019s it, isn\u2019t it? The longing–
\nthe longing is the clue. I got it, didn\u2019t I? I got it.
\nI see you smiling, nibbling a grain of barely, I see
\nthe glint in your obsidian eyes, I see you twitch your ear,
\nI see you disappear again into the corn field.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nibbling a Grain of Barely by Radiance Angelina Petro I don\u2019t want any clues. OK. Maybe just one. It doesn\u2019t need to be the kind that resounds in my head, but don\u2019t make it the faintest echo either. Don\u2019t give it in a roundabout way, and don\u2019t make it come from the third or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2777"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2777"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2777\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2780,"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2777\/revisions\/2780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}