I was a child when I went to school in a building.<\/p>\n
Six. My brother, Jake, was ten
\njust learning science and
\nlong division. I knew how to
\nread and multiply.<\/p>\n
That was the night I knew why Spot ran away.<\/p>\n
The crash through the front door
\njarred me awake just as Jake
\nopened my door
\ncarrying the crossbow Santa brought.<\/p>\n
He was the best big brother ever in a million years!<\/p>\n
\u201cShh!\u201d his finger to his mouth as he
\nslid open the wall above my toy box
\njust as Mommy had taught us.
\n\u201cDon\u2019t cry,\u201d he whispered.<\/p>\n
Those were the last words he spoke before the bullet.<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t cry. I didn\u2019t cry as I
\nheard my mother screaming
\n\u201cThey\u2019re not here!\u201d
\nAnd I stayed for hours
\nuntil they left. The soldiers.<\/p>\n
Men in crazy hats waved tattered flags seeking the disobedient.<\/p>\n
I stayed until I knew
\nthey were gone, and not asleep
\nin my mother\u2019s bed\u2026
\nuntil long after the toilet flushed.<\/p>\n
I stayed until the coyotes came close, and there were no more Cheerios.<\/p>\n
Strange finding the town so empty
\nwhen I rode my bike to the store \u2013
\nthe door wide open and lights still on.
\nI stole some Velveeta and crackers.<\/p>\n
Alone, twenty years in a town of ghosts has no advantage.<\/p>\n
I was at least ten years old
\nbefore all the food was gone
\nfrom all the houses,
\nand I had to catch little things.<\/p>\n
\u201cStay small and stay alive,\u201d were my mother\u2019s words.<\/p>\n
I lived in each of them
\nfrom time to time,
\neating what they had
\nsleeping on their beds.<\/p>\n
Changing my clothes and catching water from the rain.<\/p>\n
So many dead mommies
\nand dead daddies
\nstill in their beds;
\nbut no children.<\/p>\n
They took the children, but they never found me!<\/p>\n
I heard about the fires
\nand the riots and protests
\non a radio left playing next door.
\nAnd saw the flames nearby.<\/p>\n
The wind blew it the other way for me.<\/p>\n
Finally, today, I found it
\nburied in the rubble of my old house
\nbeneath some sand
\nand my brother\u2019s bones.<\/p>\n
His crossbow. I could learn to hunt.<\/p>\n
I could hunt soldiers
\nin crazy hats
\nwaving tattered flags.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I was a child when I went to school in a building. Six. My brother, Jake, was ten just learning science and long division. I knew how to read and multiply. That was the night I knew why Spot ran away. The crash through the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":189,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,441],"tags":[4535,839],"class_list":["post-96945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem","category-poetry-prompt-responses","tag-apocalypse","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96945","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\/189"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96945"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96945\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104532,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96945\/revisions\/104532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}