{"id":94073,"date":"2021-06-26T16:43:10","date_gmt":"2021-06-26T20:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/?p=94073"},"modified":"2021-06-26T16:43:10","modified_gmt":"2021-06-26T20:43:10","slug":"poem-8-self-portrait-as-a-flip-flop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/2021\/06\/poem-8-self-portrait-as-a-flip-flop\/","title":{"rendered":"Poem 8: Self-Portrait as a Flip Flop"},"content":{"rendered":"

Self-Portrait as a Flip Flop<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I\u2019m poised and ready for this confession:<\/p>\n

I prefer to be barefoot. In summers, I\u2019m often<\/p>\n

searching the house for my sandals, like some do for keys \u2013<\/p>\n

I kick them off the second I come to a standstill. That\u2019s why<\/p>\n

I am a flip flop. I\u2019m as close to being a barefoot gypsy<\/p>\n

dancing circles on the grass around a campfire as can<\/p>\n

legally be done in the 48 contiguous states.<\/p>\n

I remember being turned away from a night club<\/p>\n

in Western Australia because I lacked a back strap. This<\/p>\n

from the folk who go barefoot in grocery stores and pharmacies<\/p>\n

(where my cousins can be purchased in a variety of colors<\/p>\n

and styles for a reasonable price). I don\u2019t want to be separated<\/p>\n

from the earth beyond one slim layer of suede or a cushiony<\/p>\n

ethylene vinyl acetate\u00a0yoga mat insole with arch support. Truth is,<\/p>\n

I wanted to be dolphin, to feel water cascading off my slick back<\/p>\n

the way air slides off us when breaking a wave into air.<\/p>\n

I got the short end of that stick and was designated<\/p>\n

to be footwear. No worries. I make the most of what comes my way.<\/p>\n

Or I make the least, in my case. I want to be the least encumbered<\/p>\n

shoe I can be. I provide the largest area of the feet I protect<\/p>\n

to be caressed by sun and air, even puddles, if we\u2019re lucky<\/p>\n

and get rain. When I was in grade school, we kids learned<\/p>\n

a bunch of new songs each year that we sang in a program<\/p>\n

for our folks, all lined up in bleachers on the stage. One year<\/p>\n

for the grand finale, we sang \u201cDon\u2019t Fence Me In,\u201d and<\/p>\n

boy howdy did all seventy of us kids belt that one out<\/p>\n

from the soles of our feet straight out through our lungs.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s me. I can\u2019t stand to be fenced in. I let my dogs<\/p>\n

be as close to unshod as can be and still technically be \u201cshoes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Self-Portrait as a Flip Flop   I\u2019m poised and ready for this confession: I prefer to be barefoot. In summers, I\u2019m often searching the house for my sandals, like some do for keys \u2013 I kick them off the second I come to a standstill….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3235,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-half-marathon-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94073","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\/3235"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94073"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94073\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94079,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94073\/revisions\/94079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}