{"id":3843,"date":"2026-08-28T21:25:39","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T02:25:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/davious.org\/now\/?p=3843"},"modified":"2026-08-28T21:28:28","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T02:28:28","slug":"and-if-you-gaze-long-into-the-mystical-pond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davious.org\/now\/2026\/08\/and-if-you-gaze-long-into-the-mystical-pond\/","title":{"rendered":"And If You Gaze Long Into the Mystical Pond\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
I sat on the bench near the mystical pond
 a lanternfly sat across from me
 I wanted to pet it
 and bent across
 and looked directly at it
 \u201cToo invasive,\u201d I thought
 and I sufficed myself by gazing at the pond

The next minute,
 that critter was crawling up to me
 I was hoping he would perch on my lap
 but he decided to crawl up my back
 Jesus, well,
 I sufficed myself by gazing at the pond

And, the next minute,
 he\u2019s sitting right back to where
 he had been sitting before
I mean, I guess he had satisfied himself

Well, then, some other day
I was walking around the mystical pond
 a water snake made a startled lunge
 towards the water
I stopped right there; he stopped too
He rested his head on the rock
 at the edge of the pond
 and let the sun bathe him
 and he just cocked his head
 and gave me a long once over
and I sufficed myself by gazing at the pond

Well, he just looked at me
 for a good chunk of time
 and every now and then
 I glanced over \u2014
 He was just there, not moving,
  looking at me same as ever

At one point, he did yawn
 sort of a grandma-what-big-teeth-you-have moment
 and I surmised his jaws would
 fit around my big toe

But, after that, he was back to the looking-at-me
and I sufficed myself by gazing at the pond

Then, one time, I looked over
 and he was stretching out straight towards me
But, it was only to rest his head on another rock,
 just one over,
 then back to the staring
and I sufficied myself by gazing at the pond

Well, then, he went as to come towards me again
But, it was only to go up to the hill
 into the trees
I mean, I guess he satisfied himself
<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I sat on the bench near the mystical pond a lanternfly sat across from me I wanted to pet it and bent across and looked directly at it \u201cToo invasive,\u201d I thought and I sufficed myself by gazing at the pondThe next minute, that critter was crawling up to me I was hoping he would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[53],"class_list":["post-3843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poems","tag-frida-book"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davious.org\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davious.org\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davious.org\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davious.org\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davious.org\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3843"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/davious.org\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3846,"href":"https:\/\/davious.org\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3843\/revisions\/3846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davious.org\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davious.org\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davious.org\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}