{"id":52928,"date":"2019-06-22T19:40:03","date_gmt":"2019-06-22T23:40:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/?p=52928"},"modified":"2019-06-22T20:53:50","modified_gmt":"2019-06-23T00:53:50","slug":"2019-11-dear-maria-at-17-just-as-you-are-graduating-high-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/2019\/06\/2019-11-dear-maria-at-17-just-as-you-are-graduating-high-school\/","title":{"rendered":"2019 #11 Dear Maria (at 17 just as you are graduating high school)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Maria-<\/strong><\/p>\n

I know you hate that long white graduation dress<\/strong><\/p>\n

And the white shoes to match<\/strong><\/p>\n

But you\u2019ll never have to wear skirts again if you don\u2019t want to<\/strong><\/p>\n

No more long socks under your uniform <\/strong><\/p>\n

Because you never shaved your legs.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

You are a great writer<\/strong><\/p>\n

Even though they censored you<\/strong><\/p>\n

For a short story about a whorehouse<\/strong><\/p>\n

You called it a bordello for goodness sakes!<\/strong><\/p>\n

A grim reminder that this school teaches liberal arts<\/strong><\/p>\n

But is not liberal.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t worry about going to NYU<\/strong><\/p>\n

The only college that accepted you<\/strong><\/p>\n

You love New York and it will love you back<\/strong><\/p>\n

It may fight you along the way<\/strong><\/p>\n

But it will become your home<\/strong><\/p>\n

And you will never want to leave.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t be scared of the big city<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s why you dragged mom and dad<\/strong><\/p>\n

To Mac\u2019s Smoke Shop in Palo Alto<\/strong><\/p>\n

To buy the Sunday New York Times<\/strong><\/p>\n

Because it showed you the world<\/strong><\/p>\n

You want to be a part of.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

If I had it to do again-<\/strong><\/p>\n

Go to the dining hall at dinner time<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not at 4:30 pm to avoid the crowds<\/strong><\/p>\n

Just because you\u2019re alone.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t be so quick to go see your sister at Yale<\/strong><\/p>\n

When that nice guy David was probably going to ask you out<\/strong><\/p>\n

Because that never happened again.<\/strong><\/p>\n

And don\u2019t leave your room in the bitter cold<\/strong><\/p>\n

Without drying your hair<\/strong><\/p>\n

Because it will freeze.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Maria- I know you hate that long white graduation dress And the white shoes to match But you\u2019ll never have to wear skirts again if you don\u2019t want to No more long socks under your uniform Because you never shaved your legs. \u00a0 You…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":959,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-half-marathon-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52928","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\/959"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52928"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52945,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52928\/revisions\/52945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}