{"id":840,"date":"2020-09-23T13:49:51","date_gmt":"2020-09-23T13:49:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hughesgallery.net\/barbarahelveyhughes\/?p=840"},"modified":"2020-09-23T15:37:37","modified_gmt":"2020-09-23T15:37:37","slug":"840","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hughesgallery.net\/barbarahelveyhughes\/2020\/09\/23\/840\/","title":{"rendered":"Stalker of Souls"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"fonts-plugin-block\" style=\"font-weight: normal;font-size: 15px;line-height: 1.3\"><\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"953\" height=\"334\" src=\"https:\/\/hughesgallery.net\/barbarahelveyhughes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/9-23-2020-Stalker-of-Souls-3.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-843\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hughesgallery.net\/barbarahelveyhughes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/9-23-2020-Stalker-of-Souls-3.jpg 953w, https:\/\/hughesgallery.net\/barbarahelveyhughes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/9-23-2020-Stalker-of-Souls-3-300x105.jpg 300w, https:\/\/hughesgallery.net\/barbarahelveyhughes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/9-23-2020-Stalker-of-Souls-3-768x269.jpg 768w, https:\/\/hughesgallery.net\/barbarahelveyhughes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/9-23-2020-Stalker-of-Souls-3-604x212.jpg 604w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 953px) 100vw, 953px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/hughesgallery.net\/barbarahelveyhughes\/audio\/Stalker%20of%20Souls.m4a?_t=1600870272\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n<p class=\"fonts-plugin-block\" style=\"font-weight: normal;font-size: 15px;line-height: 1.2\"><strong><em>Stalker of Souls<\/em><\/strong><br>\u00a0<br>\u00a0<br>I plod these woods beneath sharp shafts of sin &#8211;<br>carried calm within waves of the moon.<br>The sun shines grave for trackers of wolves:<br>and night for the hunters of men.<br>\u00a0<br>Past dips and rolls I hole up in a cave<br>where lakes echo with sad cries of loons.<br>Under bluing nights and golden days<br>I know I cannot return too soon<br>to my heart\u2019s home; my life\u2019s urgent song<br>no, I cannot return too soon.<br>\u00a0<br>Entering camp, as the moon winks goodbye,<br>brother sun climbs the far mountain\u2019s crest,<br>East emblazons a coral red sky:<br>Sister Moon curtseys down in the West.<br>\u00a0<br>I can barely see; the light fires so bright<br>and I trip on the branch of a tree<br>open my eyes and stare at the sight:<br>stone dead among the burned debris.<br>\u00a0<br>Bodies froze stiff, left in postures of pain<br>vacant eyes open wide t\u2019ward the land.<br>I shake my head and adjust my mind.<br>Lift up and gaze around where I stand.<br>\u00a0<br>No loved one now pumps a whisper of breath,<br>and I pitch through the field of our camp.<br>Rage burrows deep when I find my wife<br>dead from the many stabs of a knife.<br>My son, just six, with his outstretched arm<br>in a vain attempt to stave off harm\u2026<br>\u2026but I did not return soon enough.<br>\u00a0<br>Yes, the day was made for hunters of wolves<br>and night for the stalkers of souls.<br>\u00a0<br>I turned from camp and trudged away<br>scraping mountains, listing over the hills<br>hunter of night and hunter of day<br>knowing well in my heart and my mind<br>through ancient woods I would roam and rift;<br>would float down full rivers until I find<br>the camp of murderous men I would gift<br>their singular hell; flames hot, blood spills.<br>\u00a0<br>For night is made for the hunters of wolves<br>and daylight for the hunters of men.<br>\u00a0<br>So I plod these woods through indigo nights<br>burdened low by my sharp shafts of sin.<br>\u00a0<br>\u00a0<br>\u00a0<br>\u00a0<br>\u00a0<br>\u00a0<br>Barbara Helvey Hughes, 10\/2000\/11-16-2011\/9-23-2020 EDIT<br>\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":844,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hughesgallery.net\/barbarahelveyhughes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hughesgallery.net\/barbarahelveyhughes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hughesgallery.net\/barbarahelveyhughes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hughesgallery.net\/barbarahelveyhughes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hughesgallery.net\/barbarahelveyhughes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=840"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/hughesgallery.net\/barbarahelveyhughes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":847,"href":"https:\/\/hughesgallery.net\/barbarahelveyhughes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840\/revisions\/847"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hughesgallery.net\/barbarahelveyhughes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hughesgallery.net\/barbarahelveyhughes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hughesgallery.net\/barbarahelveyhughes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hughesgallery.net\/barbarahelveyhughes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}