I
\nBorn in my parents\u2019 hometown.
\nApril is the month of bluebonnets.Many pictures of Mom in bluebonnet fields,
\nNone of me. My Mamaw lived there, and she loved me.<\/p>\n
II
\nWe were poor. We moved a lot, but it wasn\u2019t hard.
\nWe spent most weekends camping and fishing on the beach.
\nI am confident and unafraid.
\nMy third grade teacher saw me for the genius I am
\nAnd put me in charge of things.
\nI liked being in charge of things.<\/p>\n
III
\nDad drank and smoked. He worked evenings
\nand weekends. He started taking his frustrations out on me
\nwith his hand, switch or belt. I couldn\u2019t protect the others.
\nThey got it, too. But I was the main target.
\nIt wasn\u2019t tough love, it was meanness born of frustration.
\nBut it hurt the same, regardless of the name.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
IV
\nMusic saved me. I was good at it. My heart soared.
\nI played in the orchestra, I played in the band.
\nIn high school I was a majorette and Drum Major.
\nThose are high profile jobs in Texas schools.
\nLife was finally tipping my way!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
V
\nMy sisters are better with remembering
\nfamily stories and names. I can meet a stranger briefly
\nand remember their name a year later. But I can\u2019t remember
\nwho went to the beach that time we had a singalong, or
\nwhat everyone ate at Dad\u2019s favorite restaurant on
\nsome anniversary or birthday. Does it really matter?
\nMy sisters and my mother can! That\u2019s enough.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
VI
\nThe day I learned to diagram sentences was the day I knew
\none day I would write. Mrs. Raley stood there, holding her chalk,
\ntalking about predicate adjectives, and suddenly a veil dropped.
\nI understood parts of speech and how they depend upon each other.
\nI still remember how it felt to know that I knew. I knew English.
\nI really knew it. No one could ever take that away from me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I Born in my parents\u2019 hometown. April is the month of bluebonnets.Many pictures of Mom in bluebonnet fields, None of me. My Mamaw lived there, and she loved me. II We were poor. We moved a lot, but it wasn\u2019t hard. We spent most weekends…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1075,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[3377,273,23],"class_list":["post-57378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem","tag-english","tag-hour-23","tag-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57378","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\/1075"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57378"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57889,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57378\/revisions\/57889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}