{"id":49012,"date":"2019-06-22T14:05:45","date_gmt":"2019-06-22T18:05:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/?p=49012"},"modified":"2019-06-22T14:05:45","modified_gmt":"2019-06-22T18:05:45","slug":"allergies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/2019\/06\/allergies\/","title":{"rendered":"Allergies"},"content":{"rendered":"<pre>I know, I know.\r\nPeople say, \r\n\u201dAllergies are a first world problem.\u201d\r\n\u201dGet over it.\u201d\r\n\r\nAs a child, I never complained\r\nAbout scratchy eyes and throat.\r\nMy little kitten was too precious\r\nto be told that she was the cause.\r\n\r\nMy whole life has been a cycle of wheezing,\r\nsniffles, and eyes swollen, \r\nwith translucent streams of tears\r\nand matted eyelashes.\r\n\r\nCats, then dust, then pollen.\r\nCats, then dust, then pollen.\r\nMy chest wheezes and moans.\r\nI shower, then sit, then avoid.\r\n\r\nMy eyes, swollen and tired.\r\nAlways tired, bloodshot and bruised.\r\nWatery and teary-eyed.\r\nDetermined to stay happy.\r\n\r\nFor if I cry, \r\nI cannot breathe; I cannot see.\r\nMy chest wheezes and moans.\r\nI shower, then sit, then avoid.\r\n\r\nOnce, my gritty, watery, snotty eyes\r\nitched so much, were so painful.\r\nThat is to say, hurt.\r\nI washed them with running water.\r\n\r\nIt did not help.\r\nI rubbed them until \r\nMy lids swelled shut,\r\nPuffy and tender to the touch. \r\n\r\nIt did not help.\r\nI felt that if I could just scratch\r\nThe underside of my eyelid,\r\nThat would have to help.\r\n\r\nIt did not help.\r\nSo, I thought about people \r\nwho wear contacts\r\nAnd say, \u201cI\u2019ve something in my eye.\u201d\r\n\r\nWith finger and thumb, \r\nI pulled my eyelids apart\r\nAs far as they could go.\r\nPainful and sore as they were.\r\n\r\nWith my other hand, \r\nI was meticulous, really.\r\nI pinched a corner of white, \r\nCarefully peeling it off my eye.\r\n\r\nThe iris came off with it,\r\nLeaving only the pupil\r\nAnd bloody, eye flesh.\r\nRelief at last.<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I know, I know. People say, \u201dAllergies are a first world problem.\u201d \u201dGet over it.\u201d As a child, I never complained About scratchy eyes and throat. My little kitten was too precious to be told that she was the cause. My whole life has been&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":215,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1136],"tags":[2236],"class_list":["post-49012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem","category-official-marathon-prompts","tag-hour5"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49012","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\/215"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49012"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49012\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49707,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49012\/revisions\/49707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}