{"id":1447,"date":"2016-03-30T19:29:23","date_gmt":"2016-03-30T19:29:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/arielsheen.com\/?p=1447"},"modified":"2017-11-02T23:08:42","modified_gmt":"2017-11-02T23:08:42","slug":"death-stands-just-outside-my-window","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arielsheen.com\/index.php\/2016\/03\/30\/death-stands-just-outside-my-window\/","title":{"rendered":"Death Stands Just Outside My Window"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Death Stands Just Outside My Window<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In the tree outside my bedroom window<br \/>\nOverlooking the preserve, not ten feet from me<br \/>\nA dozen black vultures<br \/>\nJerk and twitch their veiny black necks<br \/>\nAs they hop, fight and squawk<br \/>\nOver the body of an opossum<br \/>\nWith a black tire mark<br \/>\nOver it\u2019s spine and back legs.<br \/>\nI\u2019m not sure if it&#8217;s their beaks pulling at furred flesh<br \/>\nOr a dying breath that had it the words I\u2019m sure<br \/>\nIt would wish for,<br \/>\nBut its mouth seems to twitch at each touch<br \/>\nOf beak on body.<\/p>\n<p>As I watch them caw and compete for the corpse<br \/>\nAnother vulture\u00a0alights on the outskirts<br \/>\nTo see if it too can get in on the action and then<br \/>\nA green gator of maybe seven or eight feet<br \/>\nThat must have been sitting,<br \/>\nWaiting,<br \/>\nWatching far longer than I,<br \/>\nOr maybe that just moved so slow<br \/>\nThat not a one of the murder of carrion crows\u00a0noticed it<br \/>\nLeaps from the brackish water<br \/>\nTo the side of the embankment with jaws open.<br \/>\nI\u2019m not sure if it mistook their numbers for its safety<br \/>\nOr was simply to hungry to care,<br \/>\nAnd was thus reckless,<br \/>\nBut as the bird is pulled into the water by the neck and wing<br \/>\nIt seems jut to accept what is, it doesn\u2019t even scream.<\/p>\n<p>Death stands just outside my window,<br \/>\nIn intention and in accident,<br \/>\nWith resistance and acceptance \u2013<br \/>\nAnd as a cloud passes that dims the grim scene<br \/>\nFor a moment I see my mirrored reflection in the glass<br \/>\nThat reminds me that I too am locked in such a struggle to survive<br \/>\nFor\u00a0I too am matter and energy existing across space and time.<br \/>\nI\u2019m not yet sure what that means to me<br \/>\nNor that absolute certainty<br \/>\nIs a beneficial currency with which to trade<br \/>\nIn the time left until I fill a grave<br \/>\nBut looking at this scene I perceive I too am Death,<br \/>\nSpeeding down the highway and waiting at the water\u2019s edge<br \/>\nIn my own way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Death Stands Just Outside My Window In the tree outside my bedroom window Overlooking the preserve, not ten feet from me A dozen black vultures Jerk and twitch their veiny black necks As they hop, fight and squawk Over the body of an opossum With a black tire mark Over it\u2019s spine and back legs. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/arielsheen.com\/index.php\/2016\/03\/30\/death-stands-just-outside-my-window\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Death Stands Just Outside My Window&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[87,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-creative","category-creative-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8e7kf-nl","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arielsheen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arielsheen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arielsheen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arielsheen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arielsheen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1447"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/arielsheen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1447\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1870,"href":"https:\/\/arielsheen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1447\/revisions\/1870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arielsheen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arielsheen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arielsheen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}