{"id":117599,"date":"2022-06-25T21:53:06","date_gmt":"2022-06-26T01:53:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/?p=117599"},"modified":"2022-06-27T09:34:53","modified_gmt":"2022-06-27T13:34:53","slug":"hour-14-the-tales-and-the-truth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/2022\/06\/hour-14-the-tales-and-the-truth\/","title":{"rendered":"Hour 14: The Tales and the Truth"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"I heard the stories<\/p>\n

Throughout my childhood<\/p>\n

Whenever I asked about the pensive portrait<\/p>\n

Hanging on grandmother\u2019s wall<\/p>\n

A cacophony of conflicting legends and lies<\/p>\n

Influenced by the character of the griot<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Aunt Iccie was a missionary<\/p>\n

Or a spinster teacher<\/p>\n

Who died in Africa<\/p>\n

Eaten by wild lions<\/p>\n

Or heathen cannibals<\/p>\n

So there was no body to bury<\/p>\n

No sacred ceremony<\/p>\n

No mourning<\/p>\n

No homegoing<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I found the official\"\"<\/p>\n

documents<\/p>\n

Filling in the blanks<\/p>\n

Bridging the chasms<\/p>\n

Of mystery and myth<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I found Aunt Iccie who<\/p>\n

taught at a mission school<\/p>\n

In Liberia<\/p>\n

Where she died in childbirth<\/p>\n

her husband by her side<\/p>\n

No one could afford the cost<\/p>\n

of shipping a body home<\/p>\n

to Mississippi<\/p>\n

So they buried her there<\/p>\n

Celebrating her life<\/p>\n

according to local custom<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I imagine Aunt Iccie resting in Africa<\/p>\n

welcomed by the ancestors<\/p>\n

at peace<\/p>\n

at home<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I heard the stories Throughout my childhood Whenever I asked about the pensive portrait Hanging on grandmother\u2019s wall A cacophony of conflicting legends and lies Influenced by the character of the griot   Aunt Iccie was a missionary Or a spinster teacher Who died in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":853,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[4923],"class_list":["post-117599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem","tag-2022marathon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117599","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\/853"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117599"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117599\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":123784,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117599\/revisions\/123784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}