A young man with a scythe;
\nthe summer grasses tumble
\nin his shadow.<\/p>\n
Muscles ripple in the sun<\/p>\n
along his sweat-drenched
\nshoulders.
\nPlanted; swinging gracefully,
\nrhythm singing swish,
\nhe ballet dances lightly.<\/p>\n
A cracked and emptied snail shell<\/p>\n
shatters beneath his feet.
\nYoked\u00a0across his neck,
\nthe wooden handle’s heavy,
\nthe curved blade a sword.<\/p>\n
He bends beneath the beech tree<\/p>\n
and its panoply of gold.
\nBathed in shady cool,
\nhis skin chilled now with droplets,
\ntrickling, tickling down his back.<\/p>\n
The wind shakes a soft sea-spray,<\/p>\n
the leaves murmur of the tide.
\nDust covers his boots
\ngrit sifts down between his toes
\nhome is an ache away.<\/p>\n
Thirsty, he grabs a bottle<\/p>\n
hidden deep in shady roots.
\nDrinks sweetly; cool delicious
\njuice of apples, fragrant,
\nslides down burning throat.<\/p>\n
In a long forgotten orchard<\/p>\n
bruised windfalls soften and
\nferment.
\nWho carved the mill stone,
\ngrooved its bed for the pressing?
\nWatched raw cider flow?<\/p>\n
Gratefully he folds his limbs<\/p>\n
and leans his tired body.
\nWith his eyes heavy, drooping,
\nhe takes his sojourn,
\ncushioned by his grasses, mown.<\/p>\n
Clouds build, snow-mountains on
\nblue.<\/p>\n
the climb to the peak, easy.
\nSleep now, the warm earth
\nholds him close in a cocoon,
\ndreams him a butterfly,<\/p>\n
rising on gossamer wings.<\/p>\n
He floats into pastures new.
\nRenga composed by Jo Young and Anna Dear<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A young man with a scythe; the summer grasses tumble in his shadow. Muscles ripple in the sun along his sweat-drenched shoulders. Planted; swinging gracefully,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[8,30],"class_list":["post-609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poems","tag-poetry","tag-renga"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/youngjo.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/youngjo.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/youngjo.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/youngjo.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/youngjo.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=609"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/youngjo.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":643,"href":"http:\/\/youngjo.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609\/revisions\/643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/youngjo.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/youngjo.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/youngjo.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}