{"id":81,"date":"2013-07-25T21:20:35","date_gmt":"2013-07-25T21:20:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/keithchandlerpoet.com\/?page_id=81"},"modified":"2020-07-13T08:23:09","modified_gmt":"2020-07-13T08:23:09","slug":"the-house-we-didnt-buy","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/keithchandlerpoet.com\/?page_id=81","title":{"rendered":"The House We Didn\u2019t Buy"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><strong>The House We Didn&#8217;t Buy<\/strong><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"poem\">I often pass it\u00a0 &#8211;\u00a0 that house we didn\u2019t buy:<br \/>\na five-barred gate, a tar-washed gable end,<br \/>\na flush of roses swagged nostalgically<br \/>\nover one window.\u00a0 Sometimes\u00a0 a cat<br \/>\nsits bib-faced, smugly proprietorial<br \/>\nin the porch.\u00a0 Sometimes children\u2019s toys<br \/>\nare set out on the lawn &#8211;\u00a0 a tent, a slide.<br \/>\nSummer weekends a slew of cars, a waft<br \/>\nof barbecue, hot music&#8230; \u201cOpen House\u201d.<br \/>\nBut not for us.\u00a0 One year the grass grew long,<br \/>\nthe curtains stayed undrawn.\u00a0 A trip abroad?<br \/>\nWe\u2019ll never know.\u00a0 Driving myself to work<br \/>\nI re-enact how we were shown around &#8211;<br \/>\neach room more elegant than the last,<br \/>\ncurtains billowing inward from a garden<br \/>\nthat promised views of further views beyond\u2026<br \/>\nWe settled somewhere else\u00a0 &#8211; a different life<br \/>\nthat (who knows?) might have better suited us,<br \/>\nthat someone else might covet.\u00a0\u00a0 At night I pass<br \/>\nits hunkered homeliness, its lighted squares.<br \/>\nI like to catch the dumb show of their lives<br \/>\nthrough ripple glass, blue flicker of TV<br \/>\ndappling the ceiling.\u00a0 Someone puts out the cat.<br \/>\nA woman laughs.\u00a0 And then the lights go out.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The House We Didn&#8217;t Buy I often pass it\u00a0 &#8211;\u00a0 that house we didn\u2019t buy: a five-barred gate, a tar-washed gable end, a flush of roses swagged nostalgically over one window.\u00a0 Sometimes\u00a0 a cat sits bib-faced, smugly proprietorial in the porch.\u00a0 Sometimes children\u2019s toys are set out on the lawn &#8211;\u00a0 a tent, a slide. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-81","page","type-page","status-publish"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/keithchandlerpoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/81","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/keithchandlerpoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/keithchandlerpoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keithchandlerpoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keithchandlerpoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=81"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/keithchandlerpoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/81\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":507,"href":"https:\/\/keithchandlerpoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/81\/revisions\/507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/keithchandlerpoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=81"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}