You always joked at your own expense: fat, ugly, high school dropout. We
\nNever questioned your self-debasement, your children, who would Never
\nBelieve you\u2019d lie, leading us astray, you, who we trusted just had to Know
\nEverything\u2014you taught us the world, what it looked like and meant. How
\nWere we, your daughters and son, to foresee despite your chains, how High
\nYou\u2019d soar with crippled vision and mountainous, inherited neglect. We
\nwitnessed the endless dig and grind, dig and grind, as you broke ground. Are
\nYou as proud still, your skin-prick wit gone dry as your withered brain? Till
\nI stare death down, I\u2019ll imagine the grin, your grip, the rolled diploma, as We,
\nyour fans, stood on folding chairs, hands clapping above our heads. Are
\nYou awake, Mom? A random sound among the quivers and quakes. I Asked
\nYour skeletal frame this morning, hoping to hear the familiar sharp reply To
\nAn ever-child, \u201cDo I look awake?\u201d Follow your heavenward stares, Mom. Rise.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
We Never Know How High We Are
\nEmily Dickinson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
You always joked at your own expense: fat, ugly, high school dropout. We Never questioned your self-debasement, your children, who would Never Believe you\u2019d lie, leading us astray, you, who we trusted just had to Know Everything\u2014you taught us the world, what it looked like…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":196,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1136],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem","category-official-marathon-prompts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36316","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=36316"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36321,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36316\/revisions\/36321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}