{"id":26729,"date":"2016-08-14T01:57:22","date_gmt":"2016-08-14T05:57:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/?p=26729"},"modified":"2016-08-14T20:37:59","modified_gmt":"2016-08-15T00:37:59","slug":"sixteen-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/2016\/08\/sixteen-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Sixteen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sixteen<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

By the time we met<\/p>\n

I was sixteen<\/p>\n

and ready for anything.<\/p>\n

I had bargained away<\/p>\n

my second virginity<\/p>\n

to a friend\u2019s<\/p>\n

ex-boyfriend<\/p>\n

so no messy emotions<\/p>\n

would weigh me down \u2013<\/p>\n

over-burdened with betrayal<\/p>\n

as my soul was early on.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

By the time we met<\/p>\n

I was sixteen<\/p>\n

and tired of guys who<\/p>\n

wanted to fuck<\/p>\n

or be friends \u2013<\/p>\n

I had \u201cuse me\u201d stamped on<\/p>\n

my forehead<\/p>\n

in invisible ink<\/p>\n

for<\/p>\n

any predator to read.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He was funny<\/p>\n

and sweet<\/p>\n

and a virgin\u2026<\/p>\n

and I wasn\u2019t\u2026<\/p>\n

any of those things.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

By the glow<\/p>\n

of his stereo<\/p>\n

and Foreigner<\/p>\n

waiting for a girl like you,<\/em><\/p>\n

I suffered through<\/p>\n

his clumsiness<\/p>\n

and fell in love with<\/p>\n

his laugh<\/p>\n

and his curls<\/p>\n

and his smell.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We were together<\/p>\n

through my parents\u2019<\/p>\n

moving to<\/p>\n

another province<\/p>\n

and leaving me to finish my semester<\/p>\n

and the looming<\/p>\n

separation<\/p>\n

when I went to Europe.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I was his everything<\/p>\n

up to the moment<\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t<\/p>\n

which happened to<\/p>\n

coincide with<\/p>\n

the moment when<\/p>\n

I went south<\/p>\n

to cross a picket line<\/p>\n

to the clinic<\/p>\n

while protesters<\/p>\n

called me a murderer.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

By the time we were over<\/p>\n

I was sixteen<\/p>\n

and gutted<\/p>\n

and he did not return my calls<\/p>\n

or<\/p>\n

or reply to my letters.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I fell in love with his<\/p>\n

laugh<\/p>\n

and his smile<\/p>\n

and his eyes.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I learned,<\/p>\n

once again,<\/p>\n

to close up \u2013<\/p>\n

roll up \u2013<\/p>\n

armadillo tough<\/p>\n

to hold in my shame<\/p>\n

and keep out his pain.<\/p>\n

I<\/p>\n

cried for years<\/p>\n

on that day in March<\/p>\n

when I learned to<\/p>\n

walk tall,<\/p>\n

without him,<\/p>\n

past those who<\/p>\n

screamed<\/p>\n

murderer<\/em><\/p>\n

in my face.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

By the time I was ok again,<\/p>\n

I was\u2026<\/p>\n

almost fifty.<\/p>\n

(c) R. L. Elke 2016<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

Sixteen   By the time we met I was sixteen and ready for anything. I had bargained away my second virginity to a friend\u2019s ex-boyfriend so no messy emotions would weigh me down \u2013 over-burdened with betrayal as my soul was early on.   By…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":712,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26729","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\/712"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26729"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29169,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26729\/revisions\/29169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}