{"id":819,"date":"2017-06-16T17:37:27","date_gmt":"2017-06-16T17:37:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/requitedarchive.wordpress.com\/?p=819"},"modified":"2021-08-04T19:18:16","modified_gmt":"2021-08-04T19:18:16","slug":"botanical-garden-duplex","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/requited\/2017\/06\/16\/botanical-garden-duplex\/","title":{"rendered":"Botanical Garden Duplex"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Built from bricks of red poppy<br \/>\nThe short-lived perennial<br \/>\nTwo years of invisible war<br \/>\nWarriors carve into their skin<br \/>\nBirthing poinsettia on thighs<br \/>\nAnd with pineapple sage<br \/>\nThey anchor fear to hyacinth wrists<br \/>\nWith a hand full of spades<br \/>\nInstead of hearts, the warriors carve<br \/>\nTrenches of scarlet carnations<br \/>\nAnd before they can sew<br \/>\nGarnet daylilies across their lips<br \/>\nThe poppy blossoms splay<br \/>\nSeeds of opium on silent tongues<br \/>\nThe seeds sprout spikes<br \/>\nAugmenting their mouths with diseased cacti<br \/>\nWords blacken from the sap<br \/>\nAnd they spit poisonous spores in the air<br \/>\nFrom here I scream through the screen door<br \/>\n<em>Dig up the weeds, you can&#8217;t breathe!<\/em><br \/>\nBut I only see arms in decorative swing<br \/>\nDesperate to touch something in bloom.<\/p>\n<p>I trace the bend of your vertebrate<br \/>\nTo a wilting collarbone<br \/>\nUntil my fingers are covered<br \/>\nIn the oil of burning leaves.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Charlene Ashley Taylor<\/strong> earned a BA in English with a Minor in Linguistics from the University of Louisville. She&#8217;s a former editor of The White Squirrel and mentor for the Sarabande Writing Labs. Her work has appeared in <em>Limestone Journal, Coe Review, Transcendent Zero Press, The Bitter Oleander, The Chaffey Review, Yellow Chair Review, Spry Literary Journal, <\/em>and others. She is currently a MA student in English at the University of Louisville, working as a Graduate Teaching Assistant in the University Writing Center and interns as a leading editor with <em>Miracle Monocle.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Built from bricks of red poppy The short-lived perennial Two years of invisible war Warriors carve into their skin Birthing poinsettia on thighs And with pineapple sage They anchor fear to hyacinth wrists With a hand full of spades Instead<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":384,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9926],"tags":[22027],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/requited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/requited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/requited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/requited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/384"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/requited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=819"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/requited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1895,"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/requited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819\/revisions\/1895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/requited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/requited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/requited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}