{"id":136543,"date":"2023-09-02T21:07:06","date_gmt":"2023-09-03T01:07:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/?p=136543"},"modified":"2023-09-02T21:07:06","modified_gmt":"2023-09-03T01:07:06","slug":"prompt-twelve-the-stuff-of-her-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/2023\/09\/prompt-twelve-the-stuff-of-her-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Prompt Twelve – The Stuff of her Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prompt for Hour Twelve<\/a> \u2013 Text Prompt<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Closets are a big deal inside a house, but also metaphorically. One can be in the closet, or come out of it, for example, But they are also places of safety and joy for small children, or where a monster is lurking, depending on the small child, and\/or time of day.<\/p>\n

There are very few poems about closets, but this is your chance to write one about the closet, metaphorical or physical or both.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Stuff of her Life<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

After a year passed by, of your passing on.<\/p>\n

(both of you passing on)<\/p>\n

I steeled myself to open her steel almirah.<\/em><\/p>\n

Expecting dusty sarees and musty smells,<\/p>\n

expecting my heart to squeeze<\/p>\n

the grief out of my eyes.<\/p>\n

Oh, but I had to smile.<\/p>\n

She was a hoarder, that one, your wife.<\/p>\n

The things she had clung to, the stuff of her life.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There were letters you had written her,<\/p>\n

all through the almost-sixty years of marriage.<\/p>\n

I put them away, for your grand daughter<\/p>\n

to find in my closet, after I am gone.<\/p>\n

(Poor thing, what will she do with them<\/em>?)<\/p>\n

I found one you had written to the 18-year-old me.<\/p>\n

(How did Ma have it<\/em>?)<\/p>\n

A dashing dude, dad, you could\u2019ve done better,<\/p>\n

It was incredibly dull, that letter.<\/p>\n

I remembered well that strange last line.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t forget to drink Horlicks, hope all is fine?\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Well, what do you know father?<\/p>\n

I have decided to obey you, almost forty years later.<\/p>\n

I now drink Horlicks daily; it helps me sleep.<\/p>\n

Thanks for the advice, I will not weep.<\/p>\n

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

Prompt for Hour Twelve \u2013 Text Prompt Closets are a big deal inside a house, but also metaphorically. One can be in the closet, or come out of it, for example, But they are also places of safety and joy for small children, or where…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1430,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,2114,1136,441,5],"tags":[5772,5765,680,3019,355,392],"class_list":["post-136543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem","category-official-marathon-announcement","category-official-marathon-prompts","category-poetry-prompt-responses","category-poetry-prompts","tag-2023fullmarathon","tag-2023poetrymarathon","tag-poetrymarathon","tag-24-hour-poetry-marathon","tag-poetry-marathon","tag-writing-prompts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136543","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=136543"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136543\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137336,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136543\/revisions\/137336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}