{"id":499,"date":"2018-11-01T01:28:24","date_gmt":"2018-11-01T01:28:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/?p=499"},"modified":"2018-10-12T01:33:24","modified_gmt":"2018-10-12T01:33:24","slug":"mountain-melodies-by-bailey-mcinturff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/2018\/11\/01\/mountain-melodies-by-bailey-mcinturff\/","title":{"rendered":"Mountain Melodies by Bailey McInturff"},"content":{"rendered":"
Bailey attended the West Virginia Governor’s School for the Arts in 2015 and the West Virginia Governor’s Honors Academy in 2016 where she studied creative writing in short forms–flash fiction, sonnets, villanelles, and other short forms of writing.\u00a0 Bailey’s stories can be found in Ghost City Review and Whetstone. When she’s not writing, Bailey can almost always be found drinking tea, running while listening to audio books and podcasts, or hiking in the woods with her dogs.<\/em><\/h6>\n

 <\/p>\n

April Showers<\/h3>\n

Only three days into April,
\nand we are already cleansing
\nthe sins of winter with the rain.
\nDew droplets of water collect,
\ncling to the hairs like spiders\u2019 webs
\nthat fill the space between eyebrows,
\ndecorating refreshed faces
\nwith aqueous diamonds of spring.<\/p>\n

I always wear these jewels with pride,
\ncarrying Nature\u2019s messages
\nthat it is time for a reset
\nand the Earth is being reborn
\nin pools of run-off that collect
\nwhere sidewalks finally give in
\nto the persuasion of tree roots.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Following Trails<\/h3>\n

Not a cloud brushes the sky,
\ndeceptive, but it\u2019s a good sign.
\nAt last unobscured,
\nthe sun whispers promises
\nthat spring is sure to follow
\nthe breadcrumb trails that the wind,
\nrunning westwards, leaves behind.<\/p>\n

I have already seen some green,
\ndotted with a tinge of pink\u2014
\nprettied by dogwoods\u2019 precious petals
\nthat light upon branches
\nlike kisses on fingers.<\/p>\n

Frosts still freeze the mountains at night,
\nand my skin aches each navy morning
\nfor the warmth of the Easter tree
\n(Forsythia suspensa)
\nhighlighting cliffs and crevices
\nof the sandstone faces of Route 19.<\/p>\n

When I spot the first burst
\nof forsythia\u2019s rays, I will follow
\ntheir trails to find spring.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I Found Them, Keats<\/h3>\n

Songs of spring played on my windowsill
\nby the delicate fingers of March rain.
\nEach drop mans a different instrument,
\nensuring the orchestra is complete.<\/p>\n

One taps on timpani
\nthe pace of approaching spring.<\/p>\n

One strums the harp
\nas it splashes into the stream.<\/p>\n

One draws a sigh from the violin,
\nthe wind directing the storm.<\/p>\n

Their compositions breathe life into spring,
\nresuscitating reluctant hibernators
\nwith improvised electric melodies
\neven when the sun doesn\u2019t shine.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Night Rider<\/h3>\n

I reject the glare of my watch,
\ninsisting it is only 6 o\u2019clock;
\nit feels like I am at the end of time.<\/p>\n

The golden halo of the sun dove
\nbehind layers of rose and amethyst clouds
\ncompounded and crystallized
\nby the pressure of the sky.<\/p>\n

Tail lights of cars, low-hanging lanterns,
\nengulfed me in traffic
\nbefore they found themselves weak embers
\namidst the ashes of the day.
\nEach one pulsed, waiting to receive
\na sigh strong enough
\nto breathe them into a blaze
\nthat could replace the sun in night.<\/p>\n

When these embers died into the soot,
\nI was left alone, one intrepid mouse
\nnavigating the labyrinth posed by
\nthe mountain roads at twilight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bailey attended the West Virginia Governor’s School for the Arts in 2015 and the West Virginia Governor’s Honors Academy in 2016 where she studied creative writing in short forms–flash fiction, sonnets, villanelles, and other short forms of writing.\u00a0 Bailey’s stories can be found in Ghost City Review and Whetstone. When she’s not writing, Bailey can … 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-499","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-83","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499","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=499"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":501,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499\/revisions\/501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}