Hour 12, Prompt 12<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In the Rooms, Women Come and Go<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Betty\u2019s machine-gun laugh rat-a-tat-tats from the far corner where the hostess positioned her<\/p>\n Attempting to soften the gunfire with the plethora of ornament-themed throw pillows and expensive red rugs between the shrapnel and the refined guests<\/p>\n Someone I\u2019ve never seen at one of these soirees offers to take Betty out to the patio<\/p>\n But a professor of minerology points to the ceramic tiles and drones about acoustics, reverberation, something about echo off the snow<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Waiters in their tuxedoes with matching red facemasks and cummerbunds clink wine glasses against silver trays more loudly,<\/p>\n As if this will cover the lack of cultivation coming from the corner<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Fancy women come and go, don\u2019t you know<\/p>\n <\/p>\n From my perch near the white grand piano, where a hired musician currently tickles a much-too-slow version of \u201cMerry Christmas, Darling,\u201d I accept from one penguin\u2019s tray a waffle-cone cracker with a dollop of cream cheese and peach slice<\/p>\n Do I dare to eat this?<\/p>\n At least my trousers aren\u2019t rolled<\/p>\n I know my hair is thinner than it used to be and my days among this society are numbered<\/p>\n <\/p>\n My amusement heightened, I click across the marble floor, avoiding the pricy rugs of dubious material and introduce myself to Betty<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cChahhmed, I\u2019m sure,\u201d she says<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou know why Monique\u2019s tree reminds me of a priest?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Betty blinks her lush lashes at me, swishing her martini with its peppermint stick<\/p>\n \u201cWhat? Why?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIts balls are just for decoration.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n With her head thrown back dramatically, Betty\u2019s machine-gun fire erupts again<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Fancy women come and go, don\u2019t you know<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hour 12, Prompt 12 In the Rooms, Women Come and Go Betty\u2019s machine-gun laugh rat-a-tat-tats from the far corner where the hostess positioned her Attempting to soften the gunfire with the plethora of ornament-themed throw pillows and expensive red rugs between the shrapnel…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1426,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[4906,5292,5301],"class_list":["post-116182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem","tag-2022fullmarathon","tag-2022hour12","tag-2022hour12gatheringprompt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116182","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\/1426"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116182"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116194,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116182\/revisions\/116194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}