{"id":127374,"date":"2023-09-02T09:53:41","date_gmt":"2023-09-02T13:53:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/?p=127374"},"modified":"2023-09-02T09:53:41","modified_gmt":"2023-09-02T13:53:41","slug":"prompt-one-when-the-past-is-not-tense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/2023\/09\/prompt-one-when-the-past-is-not-tense\/","title":{"rendered":"Prompt One – When the Past is not Tense"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the Past is not Tense<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

after Diana Khoi Nguyen<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

This is how they found us,<\/p>\n

giggling, draped around the room.<\/p>\n

Cousins, meeting post lockdown<\/p>\n

after months of giggling on zoom.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Cousins, first best friends<\/p>\n

childhood partners in crime,<\/p>\n

Stolen mangoes, fashion trends<\/p>\n

secrets shared, joy sublime.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Life then got in the way just like life does,<\/p>\n

and we went our separate ways<\/p>\n

for four decades and more<\/p>\n

forgetting, bypassing, magical days.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We met, at weddings and such<\/p>\n

with partners, spouses, and soon, young ones<\/p>\n

We\u2019d hug and kiss, not say too much<\/p>\n

And return ‘home’ with our daughters and sons<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Through covid then, a WhatsApp group<\/p>\n

we joined it one by one.<\/p>\n

Seven in all, a dysfunctional troupe<\/p>\n

but oh boy, was it fun!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2018Remember when\u2019, each text began thus<\/p>\n

from the eldest, in her seventies, who remembered all.<\/p>\n

Tales of notoriety, her stealing mangoes, and us<\/p>\n

the younger ones, on lookout call.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Today though, we finally meet,<\/p>\n

and wear the childhood cloak we share.<\/p>\n

They find us thus, when they come to greet,<\/p>\n

lost in the love that hangs in the air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the Past is not Tense after Diana Khoi Nguyen \u00a0 This is how they found us, giggling, draped around the room. Cousins, meeting post lockdown after months of giggling on zoom.   Cousins, first best friends childhood partners in crime, Stolen mangoes, fashion trends…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1430,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,2114],"tags":[680],"class_list":["post-127374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem","category-official-marathon-announcement","tag-poetrymarathon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127374","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\/1430"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127374"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127374\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":127502,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127374\/revisions\/127502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}