{"id":62,"date":"2012-01-24T18:01:00","date_gmt":"2012-01-24T18:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=62"},"modified":"2012-01-24T18:01:00","modified_gmt":"2012-01-24T18:01:00","slug":"charles-g-lauders-tree-of-desire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/charles-g-lauders-tree-of-desire\/","title":{"rendered":"Charles G Lauder's 'Tree of Desire'"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tree of Desire<\/span>

Were there ever a tree of desire<\/span>
ladened with the fruit of temptation<\/span>
it grew in her back garden.<\/span>

Juices streamed down beaks<\/span>
stained feathers like drops of rain<\/span>
when the peach flesh was pierced.<\/span>

Tin can lids and mirror shards<\/span>
tethered and twirled from the branches<\/span>
like music   lured the rooks<\/span>

with visions of a lusher crop<\/span>
their beaks denting against glass<\/span>
and metal   while some pause<\/span>

to stare and groom their glossy<\/span>
darkness   still others keep away<\/span>
the glare of their greed shames them.<\/span>

The old lady who set the trap<\/span>
waits rifle in hand   as she waited<\/span>
for the neighbor\u2019s dog who came<\/span>

to steal her chickens. Her granddaughter<\/span>
sees from the kitchen window a tree<\/span>
of icicles in the middle of summer<\/span>

a shimmering white dress of reflective<\/span>
stones she hopes to wear some day.<\/span>





*Charles G Lauder<\/span>, Jr, was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, and now lives in south Leicestershire. He has been widely published internationally in American, British, Irish, and European journals. His pamphlet, <\/span>Bleeds<\/span>, will be published by Crystal Clear Creators in 2012.<\/span>
<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tree of DesireWere there ever a tree of desireladened with the fruit of temptationit grew in her back garden.Juices streamed down beaksstained feathers like drops of rainwhen the peach flesh was pierced.Tin can lids and mirror shardstethered and twirled from the brancheslike music   lured the rookswith visions of a lusher croptheir beaks denting against glassand […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}