{"id":2726,"date":"2021-11-03T18:27:40","date_gmt":"2021-11-04T01:27:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/?p=2726"},"modified":"2024-11-27T08:36:35","modified_gmt":"2024-11-27T16:36:35","slug":"that-the-deer-tick-is-the-pilot-light-of-the-universe-by-michael-mcgriff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/that-the-deer-tick-is-the-pilot-light-of-the-universe-by-michael-mcgriff\/","title":{"rendered":"“That the Deer Tick is The Pilot Light of the Universe” and “4 AM” by Michael McGriff"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"85\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Found in\u00a0Willow Springs 85<\/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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“That the Deer Tick is The Pilot Light of the Universe” and “4 AM” by Michael McGriff<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

for Tim Johnson<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/em>\nOr let me be
\nreborn as that small mountain
\nof broken glass
\nyou mistook for a snowdrift
\nin the Salvation Army’s parking lot.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \nOr as the billboard
\non the edge of Deronville, Alabama,
\nthat since 1983 has announced
The Future Home of the World’s
\nLargest Rocking Chair.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/em>\nThe defense offers this, your honor:
\nI was born in 1968 in Rockford, Illinois,
\nand followed the tip of God’s cigarette
\nuntil I ended up in Oregon,
\nso let me come to in the ditch
\nwith leaves plastered to my face,
\nbut this time let me start out
\nall synced-up with the knowledge
\nof the body’s irrelevance.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \nThere’s a cistern that says what I say
\njust seconds before I start to say it.
\nThe gray threads I mistook for clouds
\nanswer back, pretending I’m not even here.
\nThey’re not even clouds. And they’re not
not <\/em>the stringy guts pulled from an animal
\nwith the head of the future
\nand the body of the past.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \nI’d be just fine coming back
\nas all the money lost salting
\nthe clouds of West Texas.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \nAnd I’m more than happy
\nto watch myself again
\nearn an entry in Th<\/em>e <\/em>Hors<\/em>e<\/em>s’ Big Book
\n<\/em>of Human Disappointm<\/em>e<\/em>nts.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/em>\nMy arms are too long.
\nI’m missing 2 \u00bd ribs
\nand my heart’s a torn
\ngrocery sack in the rain.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \nLet’s say I return as the knife
\nand you come back as the needle
\nand the moon
\nshaking its head
\ncomes back as the thread.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \nWhen I plunge the blade of an oar
\ninto green water I am reborn,
\nand that should be enough.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \nWhen I float my name out in a paper boat.
\nWhen I unscrew the stars from their sockets
\nor hear coffee percolate above the fire.
\nThat, too, should be enough.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \nBut instead I feel the deer tick
\nmove deeper into me
\nand complain about the neighborhood.
\nThis used to be such a great place.
\nNow, just look at it. Look at what it’s become.\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“4 AM”<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/strong> I am more
than a little tired
of this parable
where I walk
old roads
careful of snakes
stretched across
warm August gravel,
where the moon finds
a perfect copy of me
in the fields
and surrounds him
with something
akin to fire.
I greet him only
at a distance.
We’re suspicious
as new neighbors.
He raises a hand
to greet me
as I raise mine.
No, he’s attaching
a clothespin to a line,
or stringing lights
among the trees.
Or he’s choosing
a name to erase
from the monument
this hour has become.
As my tongue becomes
a fish packed in salt
and hung from a low star
to sing until it dries.<\/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-2726","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\/2726"}],"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=2726"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2726\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37142,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2726\/revisions\/37142"}],"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=2726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}