{"id":615,"date":"2026-03-05T15:40:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T15:40:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/?p=615"},"modified":"2026-03-14T16:00:03","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T16:00:03","slug":"fog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/?p=615","title":{"rendered":"Fog"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
As if yesterday wasn't 
plenteously dreary,
this morning I awake to 
an impenetrable wall of fog 
\u2014 the hostile kind \u2014 
the kind that appears it
could be carrying contagion
or a malevolent god force 
transporting ill omens
to a heedless population.

My expeditiously vivid 
train of thought 
accelerates into warp drive
racing through memories 
seeking morbidly 
apt references.

I am transported \u2014 
I feel myself now
on the bow 
of a salmon fishing boat
off Puget Sound, 
in the wee hours \u2014 
so I know now that I am in 
Snow Falling on Cedars <\/em>
\u2014 a book read with, 
then the film screened
for my Honors English classmates
and me in ninth grade.

I can simultaneously feel
the hard molded navy desk chair,
the too-short icy steel legs 
pressed uncomfortably 
into my own filly-length legs.

The hideous greige righty-top
cuts into my hunched form.
I feel on my skin the humidity,
the Pacific Northwest's
clammy moisture of the sea,
oppressing my vision and soul.

And then I\u2019m swept away
by murky tides.
The classroom fully fades \u2014  
and now I\u2019m Lost <\/em>
on a remote beach
in the tropics.

It's meant to be 
uncharted,
deep in the 
vast South Pacific. 

On the sand 
I spy twisted fuselage
in my peripheral \u2014 
is that a plane?

But my brain cuts in,
as it's wont to,
to clarify that the 
TV set I\u2019m on
is actually filmed on Oahu \u2014

But before I can 
correct myself further
an ominous charcoal mist
envelops me \u2014 
The Smoke Monster?

Ah-ah<\/em>! 
My initial suspicion
was right \u2014 
this fog is killer
(Press the button!).

Di-duh-di-duh! <\/strong><\/em>
The toaster oven dings
bringing me back
to the mundane dreariness 
of a foggy Thursday
in suburbia.

I rise from my pensive seat
to collect a pair 
of chive biscuits

\u2014that I\u2019d fished 
from the freezer 
like a body 
from the cold sea \u2014

to revive me 
from this dank day.

I exhale with relief, 
convinced that I
will find grounding
in these baked goods,
which will surely drive 
Pantone hues into this
monochrome morning.

I bite through crisp crust
of the first breakfast treat
and encounter pockets 
of oozy Cheddar cheese.

How smart Past Me was 
back in January
to freeze a few of these for 
a future indulgence, and
how needed this are today.

I begin to sense pigments 
seep back into my world: 
through green specks 
of herbs that fleck
the craggy golden surface.

Molten butter
glowing in Beta carotene
drops down like gold paint
along my greedy fingers
pushing savory crumbs
into my awaiting mouth.

If I can't change the weather 
at least I've got myself a 
color-drenched meal and a 
technicolor imagination.<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cFog,\u201d a stream of consciousness of imagination and memory as triggered by the weighty weather, written March 5, poem 064 in a series of 365 poems written by Diana Ludwick in 2026. Photo, “Forest in Fog,” by Diana Ludwick (c) 2026. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":616,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,262,271,2,263],"tags":[148,273,265,270,272,274,264,131,220,257,269,232,268,266,267,43],"class_list":["post-615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2026-poetry-challenge","category-dry-humor","category-petty","category-poems","category-snarky","tag-books","tag-breakfast","tag-cinema","tag-deep-thoughts-by-diana","tag-eating","tag-film","tag-fog","tag-food","tag-homage","tag-imagination","tag-inside-my-brain","tag-march","tag-stream-of-consciousness","tag-tv-shows","tag-weather","tag-winter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=615"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":714,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615\/revisions\/714"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}