{"id":16718,"date":"2024-07-23T12:22:45","date_gmt":"2024-07-23T11:22:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/?p=16718"},"modified":"2024-07-23T12:22:45","modified_gmt":"2024-07-23T11:22:45","slug":"poem-the-longest-day-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/2024\/07\/23\/poem-the-longest-day-of-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Poem: ‘The Longest Day of the Year’"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE LONGEST DAY OF THE YEAR<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lucky gull chicks on a city roof
\ntake food from their parents and snuggle for warmth;
\nfor them, life has begun as well as it could.
\nThe flightless chick who fell from its nest above
\nand is abandoned by its parents
\non a hostile gull family\u2019s roof
\nis shut in a large, bright, open room
\nand soon learns that fear is a nail
\nthat fixes the whole being to a hard board.<\/p>\n

The lost chick can hear its family above
\nand calls to them, looking up to a place
\nit cannot reach and from which no helps comes;
\nflight is weeks away. The enemy adults attack
\nand the refugee huddles in a corner
\nwatching the privileged chicks eat well,
\nall because the spots on its head
\nare not in the correct pattern.
\nSometimes it cannot resist any longer
\nand rushes forward to try and share the food,
\nbut is driven back by sharp, flashing beaks.<\/p>\n

The fallen one must somehow hang on,
\nsurviving on forgotten scraps
\nuntil its feathers are ready
\nand a new phase of life begins.
\nThe prisoner walks around and around,
\nthe will to live fighting the hunger,
\nbut it cannot escape for now, no matter what.
\nLiving in terror in this rooftop hell,
\nevery day is the longest day of the year.<\/p>\n

Feature Image<\/strong>: Magda Ehlers<\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE LONGEST DAY OF THE YEAR Lucky gull chicks on a city roof take food from their parents and snuggle for warmth; for them, life has begun as well as it could. The flightless chick who fell from its nest above and is abandoned by its parents on a hostile gull family\u2019s roof is shut […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16729,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[1449,2305,5633,7317,7320,7341,8069,8070,8071,8072,8922,10249],"class_list":["post-16718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry","tag-cassandra-voices-poetry","tag-day","tag-longest","tag-poem-the-longest-day-of-the-year","tag-poem","tag-poetry","tag-s-c-flynn","tag-s-c-flynn-poet","tag-s-c-flynn-cassandra-voices","tag-s-c-flynn-poetry","tag-the","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}