{"id":3769,"date":"2026-01-25T01:53:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T08:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/?p=3769"},"modified":"2026-01-03T10:51:30","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T17:51:30","slug":"morning-after-the-election-by-kenny-gray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/2026\/01\/25\/morning-after-the-election-by-kenny-gray\/","title":{"rendered":"“Morning After the Election” by Kenny Gray"},"content":{"rendered":"\n


Nature is the antidote she
said fill your lungs, empty them
awaken your senses. Take it all in.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I tap my walking stick, stumble
as my shadow dims silica stars
trapped in the asphalt. Spot Stubbs,
tethered, stopping to pee, stops me.
Howls of a neighbor\u2019s dog, low growl
of trucks from the distant interstate,
sun breaking through the pines, finds me.
It\u2019s too much, this moment: Start again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We round a curve on Pine Lake Road
and I see someone, a night rider perhaps, has
tossed a Bud Light bottle, but I must stay
centered, so I tug on the leash, leave it,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

come upon a black plastic bag, damp
with dew, obviously an omen.
So now I have to go back for
the bottle, bag it. There’s another one,
down in the bramble-choked spillway,
a risky descent for an old man,
who knows he cannot save the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Kenny Gray is the former Director of the Columbus State University Rankin Photography Center (Columbus, Ga.), where he still lives. His fine art photography has been widely exhibited and is held in private and public collections, including the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia (Atlanta), and the Columbus State University Archives. Kenny\u2019s recent short and feature-length screenplays placed in international Screenwriting Competitions in 2024. When he grows up, he wants to be a poet.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nature is the antidote shesaid fill your lungs, empty themawaken your senses. Take it all in. I tap my walking stick, stumbleas my shadow dims silica starstrapped in the asphalt. Spot Stubbs,tethered, stopping to pee, stops me.Howls of a neighbor\u2019s dog, low growlof trucks from the distant interstate,sun breaking through the pines, finds me.It\u2019s too … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_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","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa867U-YN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3769"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3784,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3769\/revisions\/3784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}