As I\u2019ve grown, I\u2019ve become more reckless. <\/p>\n
As a child, I set my bedtime
\nat 7:30, arguing that I was growing and required more
\nsleep. My mother laughed and still tells the story. <\/p>\n
As a preteen, I mapped out my life\u2014 college Babysit neighborhood children and young cousins. As a teen, my savings grew. I was accepted to Duke Love is cloudy and makes the mind brackish. <\/p>\n As a teenager, I birthed my child to laughter. 16. As a mother, days were precise. Feeding at 10am. Kindergarten\u2014 four baby carrots, eight cubes Now I speak of running to the edge of the Cliffs Poetry has made me reckless. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As I\u2019ve grown, I\u2019ve become more reckless. As a child, I set my bedtime at 7:30, arguing that I was growing and required more sleep. My mother laughed and still tells the story. As a preteen, I mapped out my life\u2014 college would get me…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1119,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50184","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\/1119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50184"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50301,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50184\/revisions\/50301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nwould get me out of my small town (it did); college
\nwould crack open the world like a pecan.
\nI placed pins in the world map that hung
\nlike a prayer in my closet\u2014 never go back to Summerville. <\/em>
\nBut college is expensive, and I come
\nfrom Poverty. What to do?<\/p>\n
\nSell artwork to classmates for their lockers
\n(Blastoise was my best seller).
\nCreate jewelry and sell it door-to-door.
\nCraft animals from pipe cleaners (fingers
\nare easily torn by wire ends\u2014 a cautionary tale) and sell
\nthem widely\u2014 teachers placed custom orders
\nfor the holidays. <\/p>\n
\n(out of state!). I wrote that I wouldn\u2019t marry
\nuntil I was 30, after I bought my house
\nwith the red door and owned a Mustang. <\/p>\n
\nSavings (paltry) drained. <\/p>\n
\n15 minutes for snuggling and burping. 45 minutes
\nfor play. 30 minutes to read together.
\nNap at noon. Scheduled. Written.
\nPosted on the white refrigerator. <\/p>\n
\nof Muenster cheese, ziplock bag of Goldfish,
\nbox of apple juice. 30 minutes for homework.
\nPlay until 6pm. Dinner. 45 minutes
\nto read together. Quality time (TM). <\/p>\n
\nof Moher to see the waves eat at the cliff face
\n300 feet down, of riding a yellow Kawasaki Ninja
\nuntil I landed on my head, of no fear, of no
\ndinner because I forgot, of \u201cWhat day is it?,\u201d
\nof poetry. <\/p>\n