I look at the boys,
\nasleep, unconscious to be exact,
\nand plead silently with them
\nto tell me the truth.* <\/p>\n
I was only
\nan hour or so away.
\nNon-existent memory
\nof what brought them here. <\/p>\n
My prime suspect:
\ntheir mother, also unconscious,
\nin the next room over. <\/p>\n
My mind wanders
\nthrough the past week
\nspent here with them
\non their perfect little cottage
\nright on the lake.
\nIt matches their perfect,
\nmuch bigger, house.
\nPerfect faces
\nand their perfect jobs n’ schools
\nare also seen every time
\nthey step out into this world.<\/p>\n
I tuned out the fights
\nand the screams.
\nNo family can truly be perfect.
\nThis is just how they were
\nwhen the lights went out,
\nI would calmly say to myself. <\/p>\n
The quiet boys
\nwere very well-behaved,
\ntoo well behaved
\nI realize now. <\/p>\n
Narcissistic father and husband
\neyes black with no desire
\nbut modern world success.
\nNever truly there
\nbut to unleash fits of rage.<\/p>\n
Too much to bear for them, I suppose.
\nEven with with “perfection”. <\/p>\n
*”Women Talking” by Miriam Toews<\/p>\n
(Poem 4 of Half Marathon)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I look at the boys, asleep, unconscious to be exact, and plead silently with them to tell me the truth.* I was only an hour or so away. Non-existent memory of what brought them here. My prime suspect: their mother, also unconscious, in the next…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3074,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-half-marathon-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90311","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\/3074"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90311"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90476,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90311\/revisions\/90476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}