{"id":119934,"date":"2022-06-26T03:53:16","date_gmt":"2022-06-26T07:53:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/?p=119934"},"modified":"2022-07-19T22:57:56","modified_gmt":"2022-07-20T02:57:56","slug":"hour-nineteen-city-by-the-lagoon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/2022\/06\/hour-nineteen-city-by-the-lagoon\/","title":{"rendered":"City by the Lagoon (Hour 19)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A mere drizzle last night<br \/>\nand this morning multiples<br \/>\nof tiny pools have formed<\/p>\n<p>outside my door. Fetid, because<br \/>\nfloodwater mingles with sewage<br \/>\noozing from the leaky septic tank.<\/p>\n<p>Garbage heaps clog drainage<br \/>\nchannels and floodwaters reverse<br \/>\ninto unfortunate streets<\/p>\n<p>that haven&#8217;t seen electric light<br \/>\nin donkey months so power-generating<br \/>\nsets compete for the noisiest prize.<\/p>\n<p>I wade through putrid pools<br \/>\nand on my way out get<br \/>\ntrapped in a traffic jam.<\/p>\n<p>Broken exhausts spew fumes<br \/>\nstraight into my lungs,<br \/>\ngive me watery eyes.<\/p>\n<p>Hawkers stick their wares in my face<br \/>\nand this cure-all medicine dealer&#8217;s<br \/>\nspittle settles on my right cheek.<\/p>\n<p>From the inner streets<br \/>\nworshippers&#8217; loudspeakers<br \/>\ngive me tinnitus.<\/p>\n<p>Now a cantankerous commuter<br \/>\nduels with a <em>danfo<\/em> driver<br \/>\nover fifty naira change.<\/p>\n<p>Across the road <em>keke<\/em><br \/>\ndrivers war with <em>agberos<\/em><br \/>\nover illegal ticketing fees.<\/p>\n<p>Blood smears tar as <em>okada<\/em> fleeing<br \/>\nuniformed extortionists claims<br \/>\nan unlucky pedestrian&#8217;s left limb.<\/p>\n<p><em>Wallahi<\/em>, this city is a circus<br \/>\nshow it&#8217;d be fun to watch<br \/>\nif it wasn&#8217;t killing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A mere drizzle last night and this morning multiples of tiny pools have formed outside my door. Fetid, because floodwater mingles with sewage oozing from the leaky septic tank. Garbage heaps clog drainage channels and floodwaters reverse into unfortunate streets that haven&#8217;t seen electric light&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2685,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-119934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119934","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\/2685"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119934"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119934\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":125038,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119934\/revisions\/125038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}