{"id":7545,"date":"2017-05-03T14:56:34","date_gmt":"2017-05-03T20:56:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/?page_id=7545"},"modified":"2017-05-03T14:56:34","modified_gmt":"2017-05-03T20:56:34","slug":"an-invitation-and-virgil","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/?page_id=7545","title":{"rendered":"An Invitation, and Virgil"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Mark Bonica<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>You were just out for a walk<br \/>\nyou tell Virgil when you run into him on the path &#8212;<br \/>\njust taking the dog for a stroll in the woods &#8212;<br \/>\nyou&#8217;re pretty sure you know the way forward<br \/>\nor back.<br \/>\nthe path may not be straightforward,<br \/>\nbut you&#8217;re confident you haven&#8217;t lost it.<\/p>\n<p>Virgil gestures to a gaping hole,<br \/>\na gash filled with darkness<br \/>\nwhere the leaves and rocks<br \/>\nhave been pushed aside,<br \/>\na hole that was not there<br \/>\nthe last time you walked this way.<br \/>\nThe hole is big enough to drive<br \/>\nyour minivan down into it,<br \/>\nand maybe even do a three point turn.<\/p>\n<p>His gaze says,<br \/>\none must go down in order to ascend,<br \/>\nand the two of you stand looking into the black<br \/>\nwhile your dog pulls at his leash.<\/p>\n<p>You consider the lions and panthers of your life.<br \/>\nYou realize Virgil is here by invitation.<br \/>\nWhat have you lost? you ponder.<br \/>\nIs today the day to make the descent?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>MARK BONICA<\/strong> was a soldier once, and young, but neither of these anymore. These days he teaches management at the University of New Hampshire where he enjoys helping launch young people on their own grand adventures. His poetry and fiction have appeared in the <em>Loch Raven Review<\/em>, <em>Words Dance<\/em>, <em>Oak Bend Review<\/em>, <em>Vagabondage<\/em>, and others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mark Bonica &nbsp; &nbsp; You were just out for a walk you tell Virgil when you run into him on the path &#8212; just taking the dog for a stroll in the woods &#8212; you&#8217;re pretty sure you know the &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/?page_id=7545\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":7542,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-7545","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P15duy-1XH","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7545"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7556,"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7545\/revisions\/7556"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}