My grandfather rushes toward me
\nas I squeeze the accordion of memory,
\nmy music filled with him and that swing
\nhe hung in the live oak tree, its rough
\ncanvas seat trained on the rolling
\nswells of the steel-grey blue Pacific.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m a pendulum, carving a long arc
\ninto brightness before falling back
\ninto shade, the darkness lit by butterflies,
\nred blossoms, yellow stamens of the Royal
\nPoinciana tree. Fragile hibiscus lined out
\nin the distance like trees in an orchard.<\/p>\n
Breakfast at a glass table, sunlight glow
\non melon, raspberries, soft-boiled eggs.
\nThe cool fog lifts and the day turns warm,
\neverything expectant, and we, filled now,
\ndescend to the cactus garden \u2014the boulders
\nsun-warm, rattlesnakes down there somewhere.<\/p>\n
Fall brings a certain light. I\u2019m older now
\nthan he was then. I watch the ocean flood
\nthe river\u2019s mouth \u2014 fill, empty, fill \u2014
\nthe beat of the osprey\u2019s wings. How is it
\nyour breath can fool you? How is it you
\nimagine you can avoid the end of things?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My grandfather rushes toward me as I squeeze the accordion of memory, my music filled with him and that swing he hung in the live oak tree, its rough canvas seat trained on the rolling swells of the steel-grey blue Pacific. I\u2019m a pendulum, carving a long arc into brightness before falling back into shade, … Continue reading High Tide<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4227,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"issue":[6885],"class_list":["post-2641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","issue-6885"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-22 14:20:18","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/plum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/plum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/plum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/plum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4227"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/plum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2641"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/plum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2642,"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/plum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2641\/revisions\/2642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/plum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/plum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/plum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2641"},{"taxonomy":"issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/plum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue?post=2641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}