School was out
\nIt had to be Summer
\nBack then the seasons were as defined
\nThe Chicago breeze wafted through pigtails like no other air
\nI looked out the sunroom window at my friends playing in the park and had to get there<\/p>\n
My sister was supposed to stop flapping jacks and walk me across the street
\nInstead when mama went locked back in her room sister traded spots with me in the sunroom
\nLooking at me cross the street<\/p>\n
She had to have stepped away
\nBurning butter maybe
\nMorning sickness maybe
\nAll my friends were leaving walking the long way I could not
\nAll I saw plowing across the playground was a giant white barking blob
\nI hated dogs
\nIt was going to eat such a tiny thing
\nI looked up at the window for guidance not a sister was seen<\/p>\n
DO NOT RUN LAKITA
\nI heard God clear
\nGuess who ran
\nLakita
\nI ran with my fear <\/p>\n
Before my big toe could touch the curb back home
\nA green 1970 something smacked my body high as the light pole
\nThen low as the grass
\nBlood soaking my socks mouth and teeth
\nTongue split in half
\nRight leg bent behind me
\nUnconscious consciences by default and ambulance lights
\nDon\u2019t tell my mama
\nShe don\u2019t allow me to cross
\nHer tears mixed with mine and I was out<\/p>\n
Wheelchair
\nCrutches
\nStitches
\nLiquid lunches<\/p>\n
My daddy say at least their ears got a tiny break<\/p>\n
I learned to be patient and invent all types of imaginative play
\nI learned to ask God to protect me and no matter what allow me to do my best to follow what I hear God say<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
School was out It had to be Summer Back then the seasons were as defined The Chicago breeze wafted through pigtails like no other air I looked out the sunroom window at my friends playing in the park and had to get there My sister…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4290,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,13,1136,441,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem","category-miscellaneous","category-official-marathon-prompts","category-poetry-prompt-responses","category-poetry-prompts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117056","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\/4290"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117056"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117056\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":117250,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117056\/revisions\/117250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}