Hour Three 1:23<\/p>\n
Layers droop precariously
\nfrom form
\nlike draperies obscuring
\nthe world
\nfrom the frame I had held
\nlike photograph-
\nwith peeling laminate
\nironed over
\nlike wax paper leaves
\nand never comes back.
\nThe covers fall
\nfrom mattresses
\nskirting the hardwood floors
\nmethylene chloride truth
\nan offense to the ego.
\nThe blind eyes from which
\nwe saw
\nas more layers are stripped
\nbare-boned-
\neach self overlaid and smothered
\nwith thick blankets of paint
\nfrom what we believed would
\ncompliment our wardrobe of existence-
\nour history of self-
\na living work conserved with coverings
\nornamented with dust like a sequined gown
\nladden by years of dust.
\nAuthenticity-a sloughing of water rings
\nas we find the glass half-full
\nto what was once half-empty.
\nSaw dust particles of the past
\nreveal the now beneath –
\nthe soft swollen skin
\nof new growth
\npaled by sandpaper insights and wisdom.
\nA polishing of soul
\nwith word and feathered wood
\nembossed and carved
\nconstructed with experienced hands.
\nOil-ladden brushes stain the heartwood
\na translucent cherry red-
\nthe brush strokes caressing each corner
\nin a lustrous gleam of
\nwhat once was overlooked,
\ncovered, and smothered by dust devils
\nand set back into a corner of thought.
\nThe tapestry falls
\nin a pile at my feet
\nas microfiber cloths had wiped
\nthe ocean from my cheeks-
\nstripped from what I once was
\ninto who I became. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hour Three 1:23 Layers droop precariously from form like draperies obscuring the world from the frame I had held like photograph- with peeling laminate ironed over like wax paper leaves and never comes back. The covers fall from mattresses skirting the hardwood floors methylene chloride…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1485,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[680,3019,2158,228,391,10,355,5791,390,1084],"class_list":["post-130551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem","tag-poetrymarathon","tag-24-hour-poetry-marathon","tag-full-marathon","tag-poems","tag-poet","tag-poetry","tag-poetry-marathon","tag-poetry-marathon-2023","tag-writer","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130551","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\/1485"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130551"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130551\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":130814,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130551\/revisions\/130814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}