{"id":3764,"date":"2026-03-12T16:05:01","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T16:05:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/?p=3764"},"modified":"2026-03-15T15:26:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T15:26:33","slug":"sunday-verses-billy-joes-tee-3-15-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/?p=3764","title":{"rendered":"SUNDAY VERSES: &#8216;Billy Joe&#8217;s Tee&#8217; (3\/15\/2026)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From the mountaintop, \/ I surveyed the valleys below \/ and counted the towns \/ in that sea of trees.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3765\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3765\" style=\"width: 126px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/nightlightscover.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-3765\" src=\"http:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/nightlightscover-300x238.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"126\" height=\"100\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/nightlightscover-300x238.jpg 300w, https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/nightlightscover.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 126px) 100vw, 126px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3765\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">&#8216;BILLY JOE&#8217;S TEE&#8217; (2004) is the cover image on our first novel.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cThey all can be yours,\u201d \/ he said with a glint in his eye, \/ \u201ceven that shining city \/ on the bright horizon.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It was so tempting \u2014 \/ to suddenly be a man of the world, \/ wearing nice clothes \/ and working no more.<\/p>\n<p>But I didn&#8217;t trust him, \/ this dude in the baggy blue suit; \/ or maybe it was how \/ he slicked back his hair.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo, no,\u201d I finally said, \/ \u201cI&#8217;ll keep the lot I&#8217;ve been given \/ and do the best I can \/ as a simple, honest man.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From the mountaintop, \/ I surveyed the valleys below \/ and counted the towns \/ in that sea of trees. \u201cThey all can be yours,\u201d \/ he said with a glint in his eye, \/ \u201ceven that shining city \/ on the bright horizon.&#8221; It was so tempting \u2014 \/ to suddenly be a man &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/?p=3764\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">SUNDAY VERSES: &#8216;Billy Joe&#8217;s Tee&#8217; (3\/15\/2026)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3764"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3764\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3778,"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3764\/revisions\/3778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}