{"id":516,"date":"2026-10-14T15:36:32","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T15:36:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/?p=516"},"modified":"2026-10-14T15:36:32","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T15:36:32","slug":"behind-the-dam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/behind-the-dam\/","title":{"rendered":"Behind the Dam"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Behind the Dam<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During the day, thoughts settle<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">like sediment behind a dam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They can\u2019t reach the spillway<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">to relieve the pressure<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">against the concrete wall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But at night, some force<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">stirs them to the top<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">and they tumble out<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">the overflow apron,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">seep from little cracks<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">in the dam\u2019s face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They whirlpool at the base,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">scour the stream bed clean<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">leaving only boulders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Brillig: a micro lit magazine<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 2025<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Behind the Dam During the day, thoughts settle like sediment behind a dam. They can\u2019t reach the spillway to relieve the pressure against the concrete wall. But at night, some force stirs them to the top and they tumble out the overflow apron, seep from little cracks in the dam\u2019s face. They whirlpool at the&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/behind-the-dam\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Behind the Dam<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poems","category-published-poems"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=516"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":517,"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516\/revisions\/517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}