<\/p>\n
Buried far back in time
\nFossilized in his silent heart
\nDaddy and those pounding fists disappeared.<\/p>\n
Packed away in his spleen fester the words he learned
\nWhile waiting for the pummeling to wane.<\/p>\n
There stands his spine:
\nRigid, upright, furious now if one asks him to bend.<\/p>\n
Under his skin writhe wounds still open though veiled with scars.
\nA cut for each day of hunger
\nA scratch for each hate word slung
\nA little pinchaso each time Mama barked back
\nA stab each trick his sister turned
\nDeep punctures for each of Mama\u2019s vicious boyfriends
\nAnd a serious slice for the kind one who remembered his birthday and
\nDied
\nOn the sidewalk
\nUnder the elm
\nJust getting a jacket he left in the car.<\/p>\n
Tats scroll his collar and hands to
\nRemind Mama he has been long gone for years, and
\nEmulate his friends, who advise a few tattoos create a look of
\nExperience and a nibble of safety when
\nInevitably entering prison.<\/p>\n
Each expensive stitch
\nExpresses the bank he makes
\nSelling dank at the junior high and the
\nBullshit future world of respect all those teachers
\nLie about if only he\u2019d fulfill his
\nPotential.<\/p>\n
He sets his face in neutral,
\nMind tasting the freedoms of night.<\/p>\n
Far, far away, almost on a different planet,
\nHis hand rests on a desk holding a pencil that,
\nuncaptained, dawdles around the blank page.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Buried far back in time Fossilized in his silent heart Daddy and those pounding fists disappeared. Packed away in his spleen fester the words he learned While waiting for the pummeling to wane. There stands his spine: Rigid, upright, furious now if one asks…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":967,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,441],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem","category-poetry-prompt-responses"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35630","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\/967"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35630"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35642,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35630\/revisions\/35642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}