{"id":130,"date":"2025-08-05T16:16:23","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T16:16:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/evanehrenberg.com\/?p=130"},"modified":"2025-08-05T16:17:04","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T16:17:04","slug":"northern-cardinal-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/evanehrenberg.com\/?p=130","title":{"rendered":"Northern Cardinal Song"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s been dark for hours<\/p>\n\n\n\n

yet she cannot sleep\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n

lying in bed<\/p>\n\n\n\n

waiting alone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTonight is the night\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

she etches into her mind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her apartment: solemn, unkempt\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n

hallways lit by street lights. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Before she leaves,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

she traces her fingers<\/p>\n\n\n\n

along the glass,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

months-old dust<\/p>\n\n\n\n

protecting an image of them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The road she walks<\/p>\n\n\n\n

leaves footprints in the mud. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She stares at her ring,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

hands trembling slightly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Through the woods,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

she reaches the tracks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Along the rail, the bridge hangs<\/p>\n\n\n\n

above the highway. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Looking out only to find<\/p>\n\n\n\n

sparse headlights\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n

illuminating tire marks<\/p>\n\n\n\n

on the shoulder,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

a sorrowful memory. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The fall will kill her\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n

she steadies her breath,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

nods her head,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and leans. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The sun rises in the east;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the birds start chirping. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She stops and listens,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

staring down the way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The birds had made up<\/p>\n\n\n\n

for lost time<\/p>\n\n\n\n

for lost memories<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The night is over;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

she returns home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been dark for hours yet she cannot sleep\u2014 lying in bed waiting alone.  \u201cTonight is the night\u201d she etches into her mind.  Her apartment: solemn, unkempt\u2014 hallways lit by street lights.  Before she leaves, she traces her fingers along the glass, months-old dust protecting an image of them.  The road she walks leaves footprints […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poems"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/evanehrenberg.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/evanehrenberg.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/evanehrenberg.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evanehrenberg.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evanehrenberg.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=130"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/evanehrenberg.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":132,"href":"https:\/\/evanehrenberg.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130\/revisions\/132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/evanehrenberg.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evanehrenberg.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evanehrenberg.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}