{"id":19785,"date":"2016-08-13T12:46:16","date_gmt":"2016-08-13T16:46:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/?p=19785"},"modified":"2016-08-13T12:46:16","modified_gmt":"2016-08-13T16:46:16","slug":"prompt-four-kill-your-darlings-line-removal-poem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/2016\/08\/prompt-four-kill-your-darlings-line-removal-poem\/","title":{"rendered":"Prompt Four&#8211;Kill Your Darlings line removal poem"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-20015\" src=\"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Stilled-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"Stilled\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Stilled-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Stilled-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Stilled.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Stilled<\/p>\n<p>Once again, gel was smeared on my swollen belly and paddles<br \/>\nwere placed over the presumed places of my babies.<br \/>\nOne baby squirmed and wriggled, warm and vibrant in her world.<br \/>\nThe technician&#8217;s face fell and then froze as she swept the paddles<br \/>\nand searched for two heartbeats, confirmation of continuing<br \/>\nlife and growth within, and found just one beating heart.<br \/>\nShe spoke nothing, left to find the doctor, as I stared at the black<br \/>\nand white image of one baby, stilled but for the jerking rhythm<br \/>\nof my own\u00a0now racing heart, bumping her tiny body against my inner belly.<br \/>\nThe doctor&#8217;s\u00a0practiced demeanor conveyed\u00a0suspected truth, his voice<br \/>\ndroned on\u00a0in a background, dull roar, and\u00a0strangled words finally emerged<br \/>\nfrom the cold, black hole that was now my heart &#8220;please, please,\u00a0let me go home.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stilled Once again, gel was smeared on my swollen belly and paddles were placed over the presumed places of my babies. One baby squirmed and wriggled, warm and vibrant in her world. The technician&#8217;s face fell and then froze as she swept the paddles and&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":308,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19785","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\/308"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19785"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20019,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19785\/revisions\/20019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}