{"id":97922,"date":"2021-06-26T21:24:06","date_gmt":"2021-06-27T01:24:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/?p=97922"},"modified":"2021-06-26T21:26:26","modified_gmt":"2021-06-27T01:26:26","slug":"hour-2-of-24-cuppa-connection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/2021\/06\/hour-2-of-24-cuppa-connection\/","title":{"rendered":"(Hour 2 of 24) \u201ccuppa connection\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The White Stripes blasting in my ears,<\/p>\n<p>palms slapping a relentless tattoo,<\/p>\n<p>fingers strumming an invisible guitar,<\/p>\n<p>the music builds to a crescendo,<\/p>\n<p>and I am a go\u2026<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cExcuse me, you are next,\u201d she taps my elbow.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I turn sharply and see this vision, this russet-flamed goddess.<\/p>\n<p>with round glasses that accentuate her cerulean eyes,<\/p>\n<p>the tiniest of wrinkles that relay her joie de vivre,<\/p>\n<p>and her little smile as she humours my slack-jawed reaction.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEr, um, thanks, sorry, thanks,\u201d I mutter and stutter in embarrassment.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I step forward to greet the grinning barista.<\/p>\n<p>I convey my order, God knows what it was.<\/p>\n<p>I am ever conscious of her beguiling presence.<\/p>\n<p>This invisible force that compels me to look, once more.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I do, and she is not there.<\/p>\n<p>I swivel and scan.<\/p>\n<p>I locate her belatedly.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>She is already out the door, phone on ear,<\/p>\n<p>laughing gaily, a lilt in her voice<\/p>\n<p>going forth into the unknown.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>She leaves my life.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>And I, bereft, return to mine.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00a9 2021 S Phua<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The White Stripes blasting in my ears, palms slapping a relentless tattoo, fingers strumming an invisible guitar, the music builds to a crescendo, and I am a go\u2026 &nbsp; \u201cExcuse me, you are next,\u201d she taps my elbow. &nbsp; I turn sharply and see this&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97922","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\/81"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97922"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97927,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97922\/revisions\/97927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}