![\"image\"](\"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/image-88-300x225.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nMy father’s heart fell victim to heredity four years ago.<\/p>\n
The surgeon placed a stent in his aortic valve to brace<\/p>\n
the walls and keep the blood flowing.<\/p>\n
I imagine the stent shaped like a bridge to strings,<\/p>\n
like the one that bolsters the cello<\/p>\n
in the corner of my room collecting dust.<\/p>\n
But even before that, he couldn’t pass the physical<\/p>\n
to join the Korean War–his heart murmured<\/p>\n
something the doctors did not like.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
My father’s father died of a heart attack, or<\/p>\n
maybe complications of diabetes that betrayed his heart.<\/p>\n
He was a musician and a piano tuner,<\/p>\n
who sometimes imposed a cello lesson on me,<\/p>\n
firmly pressing my fingers to the finger board<\/p>\n
nearly 45 years ago on that corner resting cello.<\/p>\n
All of his 8 sons played musical instruments.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The 21 year old I work with at the sweet shop,<\/p>\n
whose name may be Rob or Mike or John,<\/p>\n
is someone I would say has a heart of gold,<\/p>\n
but for his laziness, though still an amiable sort.<\/p>\n
He has a pair of friends, twin brothers, who<\/p>\n
come to pick him up from work and take him home.<\/p>\n
One told me that Rob-Mike-John had five heart attacks<\/p>\n
when he was only a sophomore in high school.<\/p>\n
His doctor said he was lucky to be alive.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
My mother’s heart is strong, always has been.<\/p>\n
Her mind and body are ravaged by demented<\/p>\n
disease, forgetting to allow her to live, but her<\/p>\n
heart beats resoundingly under her ribs, her doctor says.<\/p>\n
And though the cuffs don’t hurt her any more,<\/p>\n
too little flesh on her arms, her blood pressure rocks.<\/p>\n
Sans word, thought or flesh, she is pure pulsing heart now.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My father’s heart fell victim to heredity four years ago. The surgeon placed a stent in his aortic valve to brace the walls and keep the blood flowing. I imagine the stent shaped like a bridge to strings, like the one that bolsters the cello…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":196,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25771","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\/196"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25771"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26122,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25771\/revisions\/26122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}