8 a.m. Tom Kah Thai Coconut soup
\nA breakfast pleasure I feel guilty over
\nBecause I’m a white American<\/p>\n
I swallow
\nWarmth descends, waking me from the inside<\/p>\n
Between spoonfuls, I remove chunks of galangal and lemongrass from the hot liquid
\nRemembering the first time when
\nI chopped the lemongrass as fine as a chive garnish<\/p>\n
I didn’t know lemongrass was like bay leaves
\nA plant that gives its essence freely, but shouldn’t be consumed<\/p>\n
That time, I’d tried to save the soup
\nPainstakingly fishing out tiny bits of sharp stem
\nBut they were still there, invisible to me<\/p>\n
Until I swallowed and they stabbed
\nMaking their presence known from the inside<\/p>\n
Now I know better
\nI leave the lemongrass in easily identifiable chunks
\nAnd I still make and eat the soup
\nMe: A white American<\/p>\n
I listen to the news while I slurp, thinking
\nDo I want to be woke?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
8 a.m. Tom Kah Thai Coconut soup A breakfast pleasure I feel guilty over Because I’m a white American I swallow Warmth descends, waking me from the inside Between spoonfuls, I remove chunks of galangal and lemongrass from the hot liquid Remembering the first time…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":989,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2164],"class_list":["post-34986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-half-marathon-poem","tag-hour2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34986","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\/989"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34986"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34986\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35198,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34986\/revisions\/35198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}