{"id":97308,"date":"2021-06-26T20:29:45","date_gmt":"2021-06-27T00:29:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/?p=97308"},"modified":"2021-06-26T20:29:45","modified_gmt":"2021-06-27T00:29:45","slug":"no-12-the-covid-months","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/2021\/06\/no-12-the-covid-months\/","title":{"rendered":"No.12 – The Covid Months"},"content":{"rendered":"

No. 12 – The Covid Months<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Nandhini G. Natarajan<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I catch sight of a masked woman,<\/p>\n

with wild hair and crazy eyes,<\/p>\n

starting menacingly at me.<\/p>\n

I realize it\u2019s my reflection<\/p>\n

in the shop window.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The dog cries for mercy,<\/p>\n

as it has already been<\/p>\n

on three-hour-long walks.<\/p>\n

Now the neighbors<\/p>\n

want to borrow her.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I look suspiciously at everyone,<\/p>\n

at the store,<\/p>\n

and wonder whether they have taken<\/p>\n

the last pack of toilet paper.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I am an avid gardener now.<\/p>\n

My backyard seems like<\/p>\n

the great outdoors.<\/p>\n

I go out 3-4 times a day to check<\/p>\n

how much my vegetables have grown.<\/p>\n

I call all the plants,<\/p>\n

and even some weeds<\/p>\n

by the personal names<\/p>\n

I have given them.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I cut up all the bed sheets<\/p>\n

and have enough material<\/p>\n

for masks till<\/p>\n

the next pandemic.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I notice the scar<\/p>\n

on my husband\u2019s face<\/p>\n

for the first time.<\/p>\n

I learn he has been clean-shaven<\/p>\n

for the last six months.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Alcohol has made<\/p>\n

the skin on my hands<\/p>\n

like old shoes.<\/p>\n

But I don\u2019t care.<\/p>\n

With my hair, my eyes<\/p>\n

and my skin,<\/p>\n

nobody recognizes me<\/p>\n

anymore.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No. 12 – The Covid Months By Nandhini G. Natarajan   I catch sight of a masked woman, with wild hair and crazy eyes, starting menacingly at me. I realize it\u2019s my reflection in the shop window.   The dog cries for mercy, as it…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2873,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-half-marathon-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97308","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\/2873"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97308"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97329,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97308\/revisions\/97329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}