Cluck<\/p>\n
For Uncle Clarence<\/em><\/p>\n Uncle, remember the boy next door Uncle, remember the trip to New York Uncle, do you remember that you gave me permission to move to California? You vowed to look out for my mother. I\u2019m sorry you were alone at the end, Uncle You sat down on the couch, as if to nap (c) Davita Joie 2016<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Cluck For Uncle Clarence Uncle, remember the boy next door The summer we came to visit? The Jamaican boy with the cocoa-brown skin And the ocean blue eyes He took that ten speed everywhere, too fast I was only nine years old but he introduced…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-half-marathon-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24359","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\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24359"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24407,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24359\/revisions\/24407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThe summer we came to visit?
\nThe Jamaican boy with the cocoa-brown skin
\nAnd the ocean blue eyes
\nHe took that ten speed everywhere, too fast
\nI was only nine years old but he introduced me to yearning and danger
\nYou lived in Buffalo then<\/p>\n
\nBefore our flight to Germany? Stories of your youth –
\nProstitutes and junkies on the streets, all very seedy
\nReminded me of my favorite,
\nStarsky and Hutch<\/em>
\nPreferred the televised version to the
\nStench of the live
\nYou saw the fear in my eyes and promised I was safe
\nI was eleven.<\/p>\n
\nYou didn\u2019t like the idea of me being so far away but you
\nPromised when the Big One hit, you would come and rescue me
\nAll I had to do was find a floating piece of land, and hold on.
\nSomehow I knew, this was no empty promise. I loved that you called us all
\nLovey<\/em>
\nYour sisters
\nYour nieces<\/p>\n
\nYou moved the pot off the fire
\nEven then, thinking of others before yourself<\/p>\n
\nNever to awaken
\nExcept in my dreams
\nWhere I hear your deep, soothing voice saying
\nLovey, you\u2019re safe.
\nI am here.
\nI\u2019ll always remember your birthday
\nYou\u2019re always in my prayers
\nHold on tight<\/em><\/p>\n