{"id":109508,"date":"2022-06-25T12:27:12","date_gmt":"2022-06-25T16:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/?p=109508"},"modified":"2022-06-25T12:27:12","modified_gmt":"2022-06-25T16:27:12","slug":"old-poem-3-of-12-half-marathon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/2022\/06\/old-poem-3-of-12-half-marathon\/","title":{"rendered":"Old (poem 3 of 12, half marathon)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A beach where we can grow old<br \/>\nNot retirement, just returning to dust<\/p>\n<p>In the beginning<br \/>\nThe children play tag<br \/>\nHide and seek<br \/>\nCaptured youth<br \/>\nIn freeze frame<\/p>\n<p>Vultures, snakes, and fish<br \/>\nNo creatures can survive<br \/>\nThe rock\u2019s accelerated lifecycle<br \/>\nThe dog dies and<br \/>\nEven the cutlery is rusty<\/p>\n<p>Only racism thrives in such conditions<br \/>\nThe black rapper, pseudonym, Mid-Size Sedan<br \/>\nSlashed across the face<br \/>\nStabbed in the chest<br \/>\nMeets a violent end, no matter the pristine setting<\/p>\n<p>Two of three children escape<br \/>\nThe next morning<br \/>\nAged hands<br \/>\nShape sandcastles<br \/>\nAnd decode messages<br \/>\nIntended for former selves<br \/>\nThe cryptic reveal, a way out<br \/>\nThrough the coral-lined passage<\/p>\n<p>The man that pulls the strings<br \/>\nThe hotel manager who presented the exclusive opportunity<br \/>\nThe hostess who served the drugged cocktails<br \/>\nBig pharm rocks the trials<br \/>\nA lifetime of testing in just one day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A beach where we can grow old Not retirement, just returning to dust In the beginning The children play tag Hide and seek Captured youth In freeze frame Vultures, snakes, and fish No creatures can survive The rock\u2019s accelerated lifecycle The dog dies and Even&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4718,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4718"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109508"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109541,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109508\/revisions\/109541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}