{"id":98141,"date":"2021-06-26T21:47:56","date_gmt":"2021-06-27T01:47:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/?p=98141"},"modified":"2021-06-26T21:47:56","modified_gmt":"2021-06-27T01:47:56","slug":"it-is-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/2021\/06\/it-is-time\/","title":{"rendered":"It is Time"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Hour 5, Prompt 13, Year 2021 <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I lay coughing in my bed at night<br \/>\nThe same routine as had been for several months<br \/>\nBut somehow, today felt different<br \/>\nAs always, I was surrounded by children, grandchildren, great grandchildren<br \/>\nTrying to cheer me up and waiting on my every need<br \/>\nBut inside, I felt<br \/>\nColder, darker, quieter<br \/>\nI knew it was time<\/p>\n<p>Earlier, I had reluctantly said goodnight to my family<br \/>\nMy eldest daughter had just turned fifty<br \/>\nAnd I had another great-grandchild on the way<br \/>\nOf course I didn\u2019t tell them that I knew<br \/>\nThat it was time<br \/>\nBut it wasn\u2019t enough time<br \/>\nIt wasn\u2019t enough time<br \/>\nIt wasn\u2019t enough time<\/p>\n<p>Whoosh! The wind picked up speed, almost shattering my window<br \/>\nA mist formed in the room<br \/>\nThe windows were closed so it wasn\u2019t the fog<br \/>\nIt was time<br \/>\nThe mist slowly solidified to a silhouette<br \/>\nExactly how I had imagined Death would be<br \/>\nNow the silhouette had arms, legs, a body<br \/>\nAnd finally, the face<\/p>\n<p>But what\u2019s this? Not a wrinkle on this face<br \/>\nI had always thought Death would be an old curmudgeon<br \/>\nJust like me<br \/>\nBut here I saw a young boy<br \/>\nGaunt, inexperienced face, translucent arms and legs<br \/>\nMouth puckered in adolescent sulkiness<br \/>\nSimilar to the sulkiness of age<br \/>\nBut different nevertheless<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWho are you then?\u201d I said to him<br \/>\n\u201cWell, The Grim Reaper, who else?\u201d said he<br \/>\n\u201cYou\u2019re but a boy,\u201d I shot back<br \/>\nI had nothing to fear if it was time<br \/>\n\u201cA boy I am indeed,\u201d he said to me<br \/>\n\u201cBut I\u2019ve been dead for 90 years.<br \/>\nI was killed as a teenager and asked to serve<br \/>\nAs the Grim Reaper for a century.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe gods choose us every century<br \/>\nThose of us who are sharp of mind<br \/>\nBut don\u2019t fit in with the world they are born in.<br \/>\nThen, without telling us, they kill us<br \/>\nAnd bring us to serve our sentence.<br \/>\nMy turn is almost done now<br \/>\nAnd as I near my eternal vacation<br \/>\nI think of how it would have been<br \/>\nIf I had grown to this age while alive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He picked up his scythe and carved the air<br \/>\nA white passageway now opened<br \/>\nAs he led me through it my body felt light<br \/>\nDevoid of all weakness and cough<br \/>\nI looked at his young unweathered face<br \/>\nAnd I thought of the life I had lived<br \/>\nMilestone after milestone flashed in front of my eyes<br \/>\nAnd made me smile as I departed<\/p>\n<p>I knew it was time<br \/>\nIt was the right time<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hour 5, Prompt 13, Year 2021 I lay coughing in my bed at night The same routine as had been for several months But somehow, today felt different As always, I was surrounded by children, grandchildren, great grandchildren Trying to cheer me up and waiting&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":830,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-half-marathon-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98141","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\/830"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98141"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98147,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98141\/revisions\/98147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}