{"id":565,"date":"2021-07-16T17:48:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-16T08:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alphabendi.com\/?p=565"},"modified":"2021-07-16T18:57:13","modified_gmt":"2021-07-16T09:57:13","slug":"stephens-blog-27","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.alphabendi.com\/?p=565","title":{"rendered":"Waiting to hear the sound of the cicadas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Waiting to hear the sound of the cicadas  <\/u><\/em><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>
\n

Unable to get a good night\u2019s sleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tossing and turning throughout the night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More tossing than turning according to my wife.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nothing but a thin sheet covering my body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not one for sleeping with fans or air conditioners on. \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n

Waking up to an alarm soaked in sweat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I remove a sweat dampened pillow from beneath my head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The heat and humidity are almost too much to bear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can hear the rain hitting the windows hard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sound intensified by the wind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Time to get up and take a cold shower for relief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Continued relief provided by fans and air conditioners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not long to go before I leave my home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I sit dreading the 15 walk to the station.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Getting wet from an equal pouring of relentless rain and sweat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The umbrella above my head keeping only my hair dry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I quicken up my step in the hope I get less wet.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walking fast in rain soaked shoes and socks with water between my toes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An uncomfortable squelching noise accompanying me on my arduous journey.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My jacket and pants did not benefit from being under an umbrella.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rain and sweat sodden shoes and clothes drying on your body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With body heat they will shrink to fit your frame and feet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such ruin created over the course of a very wet and humid day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heat and humidity levels remain constant like my lack of sleep.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How I long to hear the cicadas announce the arrival of summertime.      <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

A poem by Stephen Austwick.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Waiting to hear the sound of the cicadas   Unable to get a good night\u2019s sleep. Tossing and turning throug…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stephens-corner"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.alphabendi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.alphabendi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.alphabendi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.alphabendi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.alphabendi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=565"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.alphabendi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":574,"href":"http:\/\/www.alphabendi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565\/revisions\/574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.alphabendi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.alphabendi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.alphabendi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}