A family holiday\u2014
\nsurrounded by the people
\nmeant to most love and
\nsupport each other,<\/p>\n
I never felt that love.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not what you would call
\na black sheep.
\nI wasn\u2019t rebellious,
\nI wasn\u2019t outspoken,
\nI was just the middle child surrounded by
\nkids more deserving of time and affection.<\/p>\n
Among my crimes:
\nbeing a vegetarian,
\nsinging too loudly,
\nbeing a subpar gardener,
\nnot being able to see visual illusions.<\/p>\n
I felt ostracized from the time I was
\nsix years old.<\/p>\n
Surrounded by this atmosphere, Clearly, My grandma and grandpa, Now, I can see them for what they are. Now, they aren\u2019t a part of my life. A family holiday\u2014 surrounded by the people meant to most love and support each other, I never felt that love. I\u2019m not what you would call a black sheep. I wasn\u2019t rebellious, I wasn\u2019t outspoken, I was just the middle child surrounded by kids more…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1218,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,441],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-115923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem","category-poetry-prompt-responses"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115923","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\/1218"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115923"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115923\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":115936,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115923\/revisions\/115936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nI knew<\/em> I was the problem.<\/p>\n
\nI wasn\u2019t trying hard enough.<\/p>\n
\nmy mother\u2019s parents,
\nalways hid the spite behind
\nfake smiles and side-eye<\/p>\n
\nNow, I have been to therapy.
\nNow, I know better than to bite my tongue.<\/p>\n
\nAnd never will be again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"