<\/p>\n
It is tempting to think<\/span><\/p>\n Of the heart as a one-bedroom apartment<\/span><\/p>\n With room for only one tenant at a time.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n But truthfully the heart is like<\/span><\/p>\n a hotel undergoing eternal renovations.<\/span><\/p>\n New rooms are always being built,<\/span><\/p>\n Old ones are always being boarded up,<\/span><\/p>\n and the tenants are always moving in and out.<\/span><\/p>\n Sometimes there are so many rooms,<\/span><\/p>\n and no one to stay in them;<\/span><\/p>\n other times a hundred renters determined to squeeze.<\/span><\/p>\n Some are permanent residents,<\/span><\/p>\n Some are perennial vacationers,<\/span><\/p>\n others passing through, who scarcely say goodbye,<\/span><\/p>\n and some overstay their welcome.<\/span><\/p>\n They stay awhile,<\/span><\/p>\n They check out,<\/span><\/p>\n And when they leave, you change the linens<\/span><\/p>\n and re-stock the mini-bars.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n So after a long day of imagining<\/span><\/p>\n My heart to be a one-bedroom<\/span><\/p>\n Where you live alone<\/span><\/p>\n (utilities included, of course,<\/span><\/p>\n and the discount for friends)<\/span><\/p>\n I open my eyes and say a weary good evening<\/span><\/p>\n to every tenant<\/span><\/p>\n every squatter<\/span><\/p>\n every honeymooner<\/span><\/p>\n every freeloader<\/span><\/p>\n and every overnight backpacker<\/span><\/p>\n and start laying the table for supper.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n .<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It is tempting to think Of the heart as a one-bedroom apartment With room for only one tenant at a time. \u00a0 But truthfully …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":3644,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Tenants by Stapleton Nash\n\nSometimes there are so many rooms,\nand no one to stay in them;\n\n","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[174,213,244],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lgbtq","category-poetry","category-tending-joy"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/IMG_7331.jpg?fit=1224%2C1632&ssl=1","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3641"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3846,"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3641\/revisions\/3846"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}(Image: mine)<\/h6>\n