{"id":252,"date":"2026-08-19T09:44:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T16:44:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sarahfromtherah.art\/?p=252"},"modified":"2026-08-19T09:44:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T16:44:18","slug":"any-common-desolation-marta-mclaughlin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sarahfromtherah.art\/?p=252","title":{"rendered":"Any Common Desolation (Marta McLaughlin)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>ANY COMMON DESOLATION<br \/><em>by Ellen Bass<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>can be enough to make you look up<br \/>at the yellowed leaves of the apple tree, the few<br \/>that survived the rains and frost, shot<br \/>with late afternoon sun. They glow a deep<br \/>orange-gold against a blue so sheer, a single bird<br \/>would rip it like silk. You may have to break<br \/>your heart, but it isn\u2019t nothing<br \/>to know even one moment alive. The sound<br \/>of an oar in an oarlock or a ruminant<br \/>animal tearing grass. The smell of grated ginger.<br \/>The ruby neon of the liquor store sign.<br \/>Warm socks. You remember your mother,<br \/>her precision a ceremony, as she gathered<br \/>the white cotton, slipped it over your toes,<br \/>drew up the heel, turned the cuff. A breath<br \/>can uncoil as you walk across your own muddy yard,<br \/>the big dipper pouring night down over you, and everything<br \/>you dread, all you can\u2019t bear, dissolves<br \/>and, like a needle slipped into your vein \u2014<br \/>that sudden rush of the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ANY COMMON DESOLATIONby Ellen Bass can be enough to make you look upat the yellowed leaves of the apple tree, the fewthat survived the rains and frost, shotwith late afternoon sun. They glow a deeporange-gold against a blue so sheer, a single birdwould rip it like silk. You may have to breakyour heart, but it [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarahfromtherah.art\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarahfromtherah.art\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarahfromtherah.art\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarahfromtherah.art\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarahfromtherah.art\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=252"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sarahfromtherah.art\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":253,"href":"https:\/\/sarahfromtherah.art\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252\/revisions\/253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarahfromtherah.art\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarahfromtherah.art\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarahfromtherah.art\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}