Pink Secrets<\/p>\n
I am dropped off by my mother
\nto her mother\u2019s to spend the weekend
\nwith Nana. It\u2019s early Friday evening
\nand I\u2019m already dressed in my lavender
\nand pink pjs, soon snuggled into Nana\u2019s
\noak sleigh bed, cane-seated chair placed
\nbeside me so I don\u2019t roll out overnight.<\/p>\n
Morning sunrays drift from kitchen window
\nthrough the bedroom door, Nana already up
\nand starting breakfast. I sat at the table,
\njade green linoleum, a pillow beneath me
\non the jade dinette chair so I could reach
\nmy bowl of farina and glass of lavender milk.<\/p>\n
Nana decorated my cereal with pink jelly bean
\neyes and a pat of butter mouth; food coloring
\nmy milk was essential or I wouldn\u2019t drink it.
\nIf I finished all my breakfast, Uncle Jimmy,
\nwho lived in the front rooms of the house,
\nwould give me a half piece of Bazooka gum.
\nI asked him why the gum wasn\u2019t lavender.<\/p>\n
Dressed in pink pants and lavender top, I sat
\non Nana\u2019s lap as she read me a magazine
\nbut the meaning slipped by me; I am 4 and
\ncoddled to stay within reach, no running or
\njumping, and I realize now that Nana was 71,
\nnot up to racing after me but it didn\u2019t stop her
\nfrom spoiling me.<\/p>\n
We played grocery store with her canned goods
\nsplayed on the table, my red cash register ringing
\nup her corn and peas. After a pb&j sandwich
\nwith the crust cut off, the only lunch I\u2019d eat,
\nUncle Jimmy would give me the other half
\nof Bazooka gum and read me the comic.
\nI laughed when he laughed but we both knew
\nI didn\u2019t understand. He grumbled again when
\nI asked him why the gum had to be pink.
\nMy secret kept still.
\nI hated pink.<\/p>\n
~ J R Turek
\nJune 27, 2020
\nHour 14<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pink Secrets I am dropped off by my mother to her mother\u2019s to spend the weekend with Nana. It\u2019s early Friday evening and I\u2019m already dressed in my lavender and pink pjs, soon snuggled into Nana\u2019s oak sleigh bed, cane-seated chair placed beside me so…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1325,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72223","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\/1325"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72223"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72236,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72223\/revisions\/72236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}