{"id":247,"date":"2024-09-15T00:04:24","date_gmt":"2024-09-15T00:04:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jgourlay.com\/?p=247"},"modified":"2024-09-15T00:04:24","modified_gmt":"2024-09-15T00:04:24","slug":"alone-in-a-pesthouse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jgourlay.com\/?p=247","title":{"rendered":"Alone in a Pesthouse"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In commemoration of my first known bout with Covid, on Sept. 14, 2024 (yes, I had quite a run!), here’s a poem I wrote pre-pandemic. It’s a historical smallpox poem based on an 1892 NY Times article about one Mr. Green. He was a prosperous fellow whose family, a wife and six children, succumbed to smallpox. Instead of wasting away in the pesthouse, Green swam across the river to his empty home. Here’s a link to the article<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n


(Pittston, Pennylvania 1892)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sobbing
river, his grief,
common reeds, cattails, bonesets
whisper on the shore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Desperate for home,
he jumps.
The sound of water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He knew diving in
he couldn’t be loved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The children disappeared
into their sickbeds.
Home, empty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, he quit
the pesthouse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He knew diving in
there was nothing across
the muddy Susquehanna.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Footsteps sink in the marsh
between tufts of horsetail rushes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Climbing out, soaking.
It was not a fever
dream. The empty house confirms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Family gone to grave.
Follow them. Follow\u00a0\u00a0
But, but
for the need to grieve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They think he
is dead in the pesthouse.
He is in
his empty home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The photographs, the children’s clothes,
the beds, the toys, were
burned alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In commemoration of my first known bout with Covid, on Sept. 14, 2024 (yes, I had quite a run!), here’s a poem I wrote pre-pandemic. It’s a historical smallpox poem based on an 1892 NY Times article about one Mr. Green. He was a prosperous fellow whose family, a wife and six children, succumbed to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":249,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[154],"tags":[152,150,153,67,151],"class_list":["post-247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry","tag-pesthouse","tag-pittston","tag-plague","tag-poem","tag-smallpox"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jgourlay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jgourlay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jgourlay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jgourlay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jgourlay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=247"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jgourlay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":250,"href":"https:\/\/jgourlay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247\/revisions\/250"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jgourlay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jgourlay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jgourlay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jgourlay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}