{"id":387596,"date":"2023-03-20T06:06:38","date_gmt":"2023-03-19T20:06:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=387596"},"modified":"2023-03-20T06:06:38","modified_gmt":"2023-03-19T20:06:38","slug":"happy-spring-on-march-21-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/happy-spring-on-march-21-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy spring on March 21, 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Vernal Equinox Diurnal Journal<\/strong><br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nIn the islands spring has sprung it is easy to tell<br \/>\nall year long through all four seasons it is strung<br \/>\non the mainland massive snowstorms fell like hell<br \/>\nin Micronesia, spring\u2019s flowery bells have rung<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\ngreen grass, weeds, wildflowers have their fling<br \/>\nyear-round flowers bloom diurnal and nocturnal<br \/>\nto fences, poles, houses, vines and flowers cling<br \/>\nseeds spread by winds and birds each a fertile kernel<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\norchids grow quite easily nested in coconut shells<br \/>\nbougainvillea blooms cover neighborhood fences\u00a0<br \/>\ngardenia flowers emit very powerful scented smells<br \/>\nhundreds of wildflowers amaze one\u2019s visual senses<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nour Mariana islands remain perpetually vernal<br \/>\nthus so easy to write an eternally green journal.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nA Wasp in a Tinian Citrus Grove<br \/>\n(First published in the Saipan Tribune in spring 2018 before two successive typhoons destroyed the citrus\u00a0grove. Revised, it\u2019s a true story, sonnet form.)<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nI knew the oranges were not too sweet<br \/>\nas I walked slowly through the field<br \/>\nthough they tasted great in Chinese tea<br \/>\nquite juicy and loaded with vitamin C.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nThere was a large bushy citrus tree near by<br \/>\nmy house with plenty of fruit it was loaded<br \/>\nas I slowly plucked my last four oranges<br \/>\na long black wasp flew up and me it goaded.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nFirst it bit the little finger of my left hand<br \/>\nand then it flew up and bit my upper lip<br \/>\nI flicked it off but then up the sleeve\u00a0<br \/>\nof my loose shirt it made another trip<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nIt bit me thrice and heard me howl as it<br \/>\nflew silently off and left me with a scowl.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Vernal Equinox Diurnal Journal \u00a0 In the islands spring has sprung it is easy to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":387597,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-387596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}