{"id":1743,"date":"2025-05-08T09:57:19","date_gmt":"2025-05-08T14:57:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/?p=1743"},"modified":"2025-05-08T09:57:19","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T14:57:19","slug":"for-this-breath","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/2025\/05\/for-this-breath\/","title":{"rendered":"For This Breath"},"content":{"rendered":"

A turquoise Spanish sky and a fortaleza,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

leaning in ruin, ever guarding the sea.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

No enemy to be seen but time.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sixteen and beautiful, the boy<\/span><\/p>\n

races, tugs, mouth an open laugh,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

eyes dark yet bright with mischief.<\/span><\/p>\n

Against the breezy spray, strides sure, owning.<\/span><\/p>\n

His casa. His country. His castle,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

crumbled though it stands.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Today, this waste is mine, too. I am conquered.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The caw of gulls, the flutter of my heart.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hours but a measure of the breaths we share<\/span><\/p>\n

on this gritty white sand washing from beneath chilled toes.<\/span><\/p>\n

The boy spiders a wind-smoothed wall.<\/span><\/p>\n

He is brave and limber, a king in his own right,<\/span><\/p>\n

for he has taken the hill, the fortaleza, the girl.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cVenga! Sube,\u201d his Castellano command.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then I am at his side. Wondering,<\/span><\/p>\n

Am I his queen?<\/span><\/p>\n

For this breath, I am anything I wish to be.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The boy and I, we stand upon the wreckage,<\/span><\/p>\n

and we claim the land and sea.<\/span><\/p>\n

We lie upon the rampart, tacky fingers entwined,<\/span><\/p>\n

and tuck the turquoise into our pockets.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It is ours.<\/span><\/p>\n

Salt on my tongue, skirt rippling about my knees,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I tell the boy, \u201cEl tiempo es nuestro.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He hoists a kingly grin. I am his queen.<\/span><\/p>\n

I inhale pungent air, hold it close, owning.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Time, too, will be ours.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I exhale and blow out forty candles.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A turquoise Spanish sky and a fortaleza,\u00a0 leaning in ruin, ever guarding the sea.\u00a0 No enemy to be seen but time. Sixteen and beautiful, the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[28],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1743"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1743"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1743\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1745,"href":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1743\/revisions\/1745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}