{"id":1429,"date":"2017-06-19T08:00:38","date_gmt":"2017-06-19T15:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/?p=1429"},"modified":"2017-06-17T09:04:26","modified_gmt":"2017-06-17T16:04:26","slug":"the-river-monster-by-kurt-newton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/?p=1429","title":{"rendered":"The River Monster by Kurt Newton"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

The River soothes,
\nthe River strangles,
\nit rushes beneath the moon
\nunstoppable.<\/p>\n

At the River’s edge,
\nthe funeral pyre rises above
\nour sweat stained shirts,
\nour calloused hands.<\/p>\n

We drink,
\nwe sing,
\nwe wait
\nfor the procession to arrive.<\/p>\n

I cast a glance.
\nThe River rises,
\nthe River falls.
\nI know what’s out there:<\/p>\n

The River Monster,
\nbeneath the rushing water,
\nwith eyes of onyx,
\npatient as the coming dawn.<\/p>\n

The procession approaches,
\nmourners cry,
\nprayers are spoken,
\nwe position the corpse,<\/p>\n

feet pointed southward,
\ndownstream.
\nThe River Monster
\ngurgles with delight.<\/p>\n

Its odor is masked
\nby the scent of basil,
\nrose and jasmine,
\nsandalwood.<\/p>\n

The chief mourner
\nsprinkles water,
\nthree times he circles the pyre,
\nbefore lowering the torch.<\/p>\n

Flames rise,
\nthe corpse roasts and crackles.
\nWater splashes in the dark,
\nthe River Monster nears.<\/p>\n

The pyre warms the night.
\nWe bake and bask,
\nwe drink and sing,
\nthankful.<\/p>\n

Soon the pyre crumbles,
\nash and charcoal
\nenter the water,
\nhissing.<\/p>\n

We stand back
\nas the River Monster
\ncrawls ashore,
\nswallows the smoke<\/p>\n

then disappears
\ninto the River’s depths,
\nwhere it will wait,
\npatient as the coming dawn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The River soothes, the River strangles, it rushes beneath the moon unstoppable. At the River’s edge, the funeral pyre rises above our sweat stained shirts, our calloused hands. We drink, we sing, we wait for the procession to arrive. I cast a glance. The River rises, the River falls. I know what’s out there: The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1429"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1432,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1429\/revisions\/1432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}