Unlearning<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
On an autumn evening<\/p>\n
bike ride with my father<\/p>\n
my tires skidded<\/p>\n
to a horizontal stop<\/p>\n
on wet auburn leaves,<\/p>\n
rocks lodged themselves<\/p>\n
in my bloodied hands<\/p>\n
and chubby little knees<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Circling back he dismissed my tears<\/p>\n
which trickled and mixed with<\/p>\n
the fear in my eyes at the<\/p>\n
sight of my body spilling red<\/p>\n
over rough asphalt<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He said, \u201cGet up.\u201d<\/p>\n
What?! <\/em>I thought incredulously<\/p>\n \u201cGrab your bike. No one will help you.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The walk, though short,<\/p>\n was tinged with pain<\/p>\n and the creeping sensation of\u2026<\/p>\n desolation?<\/p>\n Long enough to make it home<\/p>\n with the realization<\/p>\n that his generation<\/p>\n inherited the teaching:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Expect to suffer randomness<\/p>\n eat the pain and your bootstraps<\/p>\n to stave off abandonment\u2014<\/p>\n to ask for support is less than a last resort.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I have fallen down<\/p>\n toppled into leaves,<\/p>\n dirt and concrete,<\/p>\n bumped, and<\/p>\n pushed hard into<\/p>\n the sharp edges<\/p>\n of my common sense<\/p>\n again and again<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The scabs heal slowly,<\/p>\n I\u2019m still unlearning and growing<\/p>\n that impactful lesson.<\/p>\n There\u2019s no merit in maintaining<\/p>\n pretenses of soldiering on,<\/p>\n do you see?<\/p>\n Nor shame in asking:<\/p>\n Can you help me?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Because of the people<\/p>\n who show up when asked<\/p>\n I don\u2019t stay down long<\/p>\n and I can begin<\/p>\n to forget the past<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Unlearning On an autumn evening bike ride with my father my tires skidded to a horizontal stop on wet auburn leaves, rocks lodged themselves in my bloodied hands and chubby little knees Circling back he dismissed my tears which trickled and mixed with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4428,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117233","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\/4428"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117233"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":117239,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117233\/revisions\/117239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}