{"id":2029,"date":"2021-09-15T17:44:56","date_gmt":"2021-09-16T00:44:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/?p=2029"},"modified":"2024-11-25T13:33:23","modified_gmt":"2024-11-25T21:33:23","slug":"the-hiveand-i-wakeby-michael-hettich","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/the-hiveand-i-wakeby-michael-hettich\/","title":{"rendered":"“The Hive”and “I Wake”by Michael Hettich"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"85\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Found in Willow Springs 68<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back to Author Profile<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

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\u201cThe Hive\u201dand \u201cI Wake\u201dby Michael Hettich<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Hive<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Someone else’s loss, buzzing through the garden<\/p>\n\n\n\n

like the bee that got under your shirt and landed<\/p>\n\n\n\n

in your chest hair but didn’t sting; someone’s grief<\/p>\n\n\n\n

right there like a stone in the almost-raining afternoon<\/p>\n\n\n\n

with the smell of horse-sweat and mowed grass and hot<\/p>\n\n\n\n

asphalt. You held my hand as we stood<\/p>\n\n\n\n

at the fence and called out to those horses, and felt<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the first raindrops and smelled the cooling road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Someone else’s tragedy passing like an awkward truck<\/p>\n\n\n\n

climbing our dirt road, unbalanced by the dead woman’s<\/p>\n\n\n\n

bulky furniture, and the potholes. Someone else<\/p>\n\n\n\n

looking out her window at the strangers standing<\/p>\n\n\n\n

on the road squinting at her door as though<\/p>\n\n\n\n

expecting it to open, then walking slowly on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Down the hill, trucks rip out the clear-cut tree-stumps<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and we think of the coyote who slunk across our yard<\/p>\n\n\n\n

with a squirrel in its jaws, and we think of the bears<\/p>\n\n\n\n

at our garbage. There were birds calling out like children<\/p>\n\n\n\n

playing hide-and-seek, pretending to be hurt<\/p>\n\n\n\n

somewhere deeper in the woods, and you tell me you love me<\/p>\n\n\n\n

like fingernails, like hair; you love me like breath<\/p>\n\n\n\n

when you’re sleeping, wrapped up in dust while the crows<\/p>\n\n\n\n

in our closets make darkness from the clothes we never wear,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and the walls of our bedroom hum like swarming wasps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I Wake<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

in the middle of the night to something moving<\/p>\n\n\n\n

across the porch outside our bedroom,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

sliding furniture around<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and muttering. It’s raining, but I’m sure I hear footsteps,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

so I hold myself still. The sprigs of flowering<\/p>\n\n\n\n

dogwood my wife has collected glow<\/p>\n\n\n\n

in the moonlight by the window; she snores peacefully<\/p>\n\n\n\n

beside me. I’m naked. Today a red-tailed hawk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

swooped across our garden, to vanish in the woods<\/p>\n\n\n\n

before I was sure what I saw, so<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I didn’t say anything. Later, we had dinner<\/p>\n\n\n\n

with a friend who’s grown suddenly old, and as<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

we said our goodbyes, she told us again<\/p>\n\n\n\n

about the day her husband left her,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

out of the blue, when her adult children<\/p>\n\n\n\n

were toddlers. It hasn’t stopped hurting<\/em> she said<\/p>\n\n\n\n

as she closed her front door. Driving home, I noticed<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

my wife was crying, face turned to the window.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I thought of pulling over, reaching out, asking her<\/p>\n\n\n\n

to tell me what was wrong, but that road is difficult<\/p>\n\n\n\n

to follow at night, and I wasn’t even sure<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

she was crying, after all, when I looked over again,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

so I drove on in silence, keeping my eyes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

on the road, respecting that darkness.<\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":25234,"featured_media":598,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wpo365_audiences":[],"wpo365_private":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2029"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25234"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2029"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2029\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37093,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2029\/revisions\/37093"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}