<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
9 am – (1)<\/p>\n
With thumb firmly in mouth,<\/p>\n
she was born,<\/p>\n
seeking a hold in a precarious world.<\/p>\n
With closed eyes, she searched.<\/p>\n
She found me – her sustenance for food,<\/p>\n
more importantly, she found<\/p>\n
my pillow and the corner.<\/p>\n
It was twisted with milky spit<\/p>\n
and tight little fingers,<\/p>\n
perfect for rubbing on nose,<\/p>\n
while the thumb in mouth<\/p>\n
made a satisfying sucking sound.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Never meant to be carried,<\/p>\n
it went everywhere.<\/p>\n
Unforgivably I washed it,<\/p>\n
took three days to dry.<\/p>\n
Inconsolable, she held the damp corner,<\/p>\n
until it dried smellier.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
And the stuffing was removed.<\/p>\n
We flew overseas and I was terrified,<\/p>\n
not of crashes but of losing my child\u2019s treasure.<\/p>\n
The pillow was cut into many pieces<\/p>\n
and every pocket, every bag<\/p>\n
contained one.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
When she turned twenty-one,<\/p>\n
a piece was stitched into her memory quilt.<\/p>\n
And when she married,<\/p>\n
a piece inside the dress -something old.<\/p>\n
One piece is mine \u2013<\/p>\n
memory of a time,<\/p>\n
when it was my child\u2019s<\/p>\n
most cherished possession.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
9 am – (1) With thumb firmly in mouth, she was born, seeking a hold in a precarious world. With closed eyes, she searched. She found me – her sustenance for food, more importantly, she found my pillow and the corner. It was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2873,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-half-marathon-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126386","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\/2873"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126386"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":127764,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126386\/revisions\/127764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}