{"id":3791,"date":"2026-02-09T00:50:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T07:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/?p=3791"},"modified":"2026-01-03T12:56:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T19:56:22","slug":"looking-for-marie-by-gregory-e-lucas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/2026\/02\/09\/looking-for-marie-by-gregory-e-lucas\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Looking for Marie&#8221; by Gregory E. Lucas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"\"><br>On a Hilton Head Island beach, I almost<br>give up looking for her. It\u2019s October, one year<br>after her death. The hues that sunsets leave<br>in the sky on most days are absent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">I stop my stroll, stare<br>at the colorless sky\u2019s reflection<br>in the ashen ocean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Pipers stir the damp sand with their bills.<br>While ospreys dive, the seascape<br>becomes more of a thing I feel<br>than merely see, possessing an inner life<br>with complications. The surf moans.<br>Seagulls circle overhead and cry<br>as if they, too, have suffered losses, live<br>with melancholy and longings<br>as persistent as my own.<br>There ought to be some comfort in this.<br>The horizon should reveal more than a drab bend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">I expect clouds to shift, think<br>the half-moon might appear, then wait<br>for her invisible presence<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">and her touch in a breeze, a voice<br>among hushed waves, as soft<br>as every time she said goodnight,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">but there are only the voices<br>of strangers,<br>all of them wondering,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><em>Who is he looking for?<br>What is he seeking?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\"><em>Gregory E. Lucas lives on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina. He loves to swim in the ocean and he plays classical guitar every day. He is a caregiver to his ninety-year-old mother.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On a Hilton Head Island beach, I almostgive up looking for her. It\u2019s October, one yearafter her death. The hues that sunsets leavein the sky on most days are absent. I stop my stroll, stareat the colorless sky\u2019s reflectionin the ashen ocean. Pipers stir the damp sand with their bills.While ospreys dive, the seascapebecomes more &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/2026\/02\/09\/looking-for-marie-by-gregory-e-lucas\/\" class=\"excerpt-link\">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-3791","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-Z9","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3791","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=3791"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3791\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3792,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3791\/revisions\/3792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}