Would that I could become my own totem,
\na fantastical blend of all traits I admire
\nin one creature, new to the earth.<\/p>\n
I would have the stoicism and steadfast strength
\nof the bear, shuffling through my days safe
\nin the certainty that none would challenge me.<\/p>\n
The sleek speed in water of the otter
\nwould also be mine, perpetually laughing
\nin delight at life itself, babes nestled close on my belly.<\/p>\n
A golden retriever’s gentleness and loyalty
\nwould belong to me, smiling with liquid brown eyes
\nin sweet puzzlement, devoted to my people.<\/p>\n
Instead, what is left to me is to embody
\nall of these creatures and more, to be
\nthe person I am meant to be, and love.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Would that I could become my own totem, a fantastical blend of all traits I admire in one creature, new to the earth. I would have the stoicism and steadfast strength of the bear, shuffling through my days safe in the certainty that none would…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":308,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,7,13,2114,441],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-half-marathon-poem","category-marathon-poem","category-miscellaneous","category-official-marathon-announcement","category-poetry-prompt-responses"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56758","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\/308"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56758"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56842,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56758\/revisions\/56842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}