{"id":64199,"date":"2020-06-27T12:00:14","date_gmt":"2020-06-27T16:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/?p=64199"},"modified":"2020-06-27T12:01:05","modified_gmt":"2020-06-27T16:01:05","slug":"just-wanted-to-be-a-mama-prompt-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/2020\/06\/just-wanted-to-be-a-mama-prompt-3\/","title":{"rendered":"She Wanted to Be a Mama Prompt 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

She Wanted to be a Mama<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There\u2019s a road down into a valley where people who want to\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

make a difference move in.\u00a0 The valley is flat right up to the mountains.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There is brush and dirt. The best crops are low to it or under it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Mushrooms and potatoes. In the windy season, Spring, you can get lost\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

in dirt storms. Houses are small and old. Most buildings are fifty<\/span><\/p>\n

or more years old. Then there are the people. They have been here\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

for generations. New ones learn why the land is dirt cheap.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

All she wanted was to be a mama and now she is\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

though she can\u2019t buy diapers \u2018til the welfare check comes in.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Girls here tote babies as they read English texts\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

and do math problems if they are lucky enough to have\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

a mother or grandmother or even an older sister,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

not yet 20 with 2 or 3 kids of her own, to push her<\/span><\/p>\n

to finish high school. But most often she doesn\u2019t\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

join the mamas\u2019 classes, getting bigger every year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She\u2019ll live in her own bedroom with the baby or maybe\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

the father\u2019s house if her parents have kicked her out\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

to give them more space.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

All she wanted was to be a mama and now she is\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

though she can\u2019t buy diapers \u2018til the welfare check comes in.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve come here to be a social worker or a teacher<\/span><\/p>\n

who cares, these girls will pierce your heart with their lack\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

of interest in a future.\u00a0 What are they going to do?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sign up for welfare. Life is cheap here in the valley.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

They can make it. Maybe work a few shifts at McDonalds,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

but not too many. Teachers, it\u2019s hard to make a difference here.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

All she wanted was to be a mama and now she is\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

though she can\u2019t buy diapers ’til the welfare check comes in.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

She Wanted to be a Mama   There\u2019s a road down into a valley where people who want to\u00a0 make a difference move in.\u00a0 The valley is flat right up to the mountains.\u00a0 There is brush and dirt. The best crops are low to it…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1339,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-half-marathon-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64199","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\/1339"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64199"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64259,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64199\/revisions\/64259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}