{"id":144219,"date":"2023-09-03T13:31:57","date_gmt":"2023-09-03T17:31:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/?p=144219"},"modified":"2023-09-03T13:31:57","modified_gmt":"2023-09-03T17:31:57","slug":"5-mystery-for-dave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/2023\/09\/5-mystery-for-dave\/","title":{"rendered":"5 \/ Mystery, for Dave"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mystery, for Dave<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When Dave didn\u2019t die from the aortic aneurysm<\/p>\n

like the eighty-five percent who do<\/p>\n

he said Nancy, what does it even mean<\/p>\n

to be alive?\u00a0 What happens when we die?<\/p>\n

Does it matter how we live<\/p>\n

if we\u2019re just going to die?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I said Dave, when I tore my Achilles<\/p>\n

I drove up a mountain<\/p>\n

because I couldn\u2019t walk<\/p>\n

and I lay on a picnic table all night<\/p>\n

to watch the meteors shower.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I said Dave, when I noticed a green anemone<\/p>\n

in a tidepool surrounded by crushed white shell<\/p>\n

I could see the pink-red outline<\/p>\n

of each sticky tentacle.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I said Dave, the soil around madrona<\/p>\n

always seems blacker than anywhere<\/p>\n

and the flank of that tree stays cool in the sun.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I said Dave, how the yellow jacket<\/p>\n

loves the overripe plum.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I said Dave, I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I said Dave, the bison\u2019s strong head<\/p>\n

new-tattooed on your shoulder.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I said Dave, your fingertips<\/p>\n

when you feel the potatoes for moisture<\/p>\n

then roll out and turn over each lefse.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I said Dave, your delicious square grin<\/p>\n

each time you come toward me open armed<\/p>\n

for an enveloping hug\u2014your squeeze<\/p>\n

like the sweetest warm-risen dough.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I said Dave, you didn\u2019t die from the aortic aneurysm<\/p>\n

like the eighty-five percent who do.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m glad we\u2019re alive.<\/p>\n

Something happens when we<\/p>\n

live.\u00a0 It\u2019s a mystery.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

(response to “mystery” prompt)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mystery, for Dave   When Dave didn\u2019t die from the aortic aneurysm like the eighty-five percent who do he said Nancy, what does it even mean to be alive?\u00a0 What happens when we die? Does it matter how we live if we\u2019re just going to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":756,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1136],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-144219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem","category-official-marathon-prompts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144219","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\/756"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144219"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":144260,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144219\/revisions\/144260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}