{"id":1629,"date":"2024-03-09T11:21:52","date_gmt":"2024-03-09T17:21:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shareletter.milwaukeequakers.org\/?p=1629"},"modified":"2024-03-09T11:21:52","modified_gmt":"2024-03-09T17:21:52","slug":"trains-planes-and-the-month-of-mars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shareletter.milwaukeequakers.org\/?p=1629","title":{"rendered":"Trains, Planes, and The Month of Mars"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Three Poems by Carolyn Muchhala<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-medium-font-size\">We Wait for the Train to Pass<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-verse has-white-background-color has-background\">First the keening,\nthen dissonance of metals clashing\u2014\n\nthe night train trails\nthe blade of light\nslashing the shadowed hills.\n\nPliant reeds incline their paling heads,\na silent lamentation for our lives\nillumined by its passing.\n\n<\/pre>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-medium-font-size\">The Month of Mars, 2024<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-verse has-white-background-color has-background\">There is no balance\nto the season.  Uneasiness\nprevails, as if we rest\nin a wildly rocking boat.\nA sudden downpour cuts off vision.\nThunder. Lightning. Panic.\n\nThen green flames light\nthe spaces between branches\nand geese announce their journey,\ncombing through mare\u2019s tails\nas if they alone exist in weathered sky.\n\nScraps of  thought\nrise, swirl, settle\u2014ads\nfor expiring ideas.  A clock pushes\nseconds into hours.  Decades sink\nunder sand.  Wind sweeps the streets\nwith military precision.  We balance\non the cusp.\n<\/pre>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-medium-font-size\">Small Planes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-verse has-white-background-color has-background\">They come in singly in fifteen- \nor thirty-minute intervals,\n\ncome in low over the lake\nand mirrored in its ripples.\n\nThey barely skim the trees, \nand I, standing on the shoulder\n\nof Miller Trunk Road, imagine \nthe air, stirred by their propellers,\n\nstirring in turn, my hair. \nBeneath the clouds, free \n\nof their bodies\u2019 weight, \nthey had tumbled and twisted\n\nin gleaming formations.  I watch, \ngrounded, but soaring all the same, \n\nhow they come in, touch \ndown with soft hiccoughs, \n\nform a clumsy line along the grass,\naccepting, with awkward grace, \n\nearth\u2019s pull that I, \nnot born for sky, cannot.\n<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;There is no balance\/ to the season&#8230;&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1633,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[130],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-march-2024"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareletter.milwaukeequakers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareletter.milwaukeequakers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareletter.milwaukeequakers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareletter.milwaukeequakers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareletter.milwaukeequakers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1629"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/shareletter.milwaukeequakers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1634,"href":"https:\/\/shareletter.milwaukeequakers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1629\/revisions\/1634"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareletter.milwaukeequakers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareletter.milwaukeequakers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareletter.milwaukeequakers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareletter.milwaukeequakers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}