{"id":98751,"date":"2021-06-26T23:03:59","date_gmt":"2021-06-27T03:03:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/?p=98751"},"modified":"2021-06-26T23:03:59","modified_gmt":"2021-06-27T03:03:59","slug":"hour-14-rounding-corners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/2021\/06\/hour-14-rounding-corners\/","title":{"rendered":"Hour 14: Rounding Corners"},"content":{"rendered":"

I crane my head and stare up at the\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

camera mounted on the side\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

of a gleaming new high rise<\/span><\/p>\n

A little me is caught momentarily\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

in a rounded black mirror<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Whose charge is it to monitor\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

the closed circuit broadcast<\/span><\/p>\n

while i\u2019m strafing slightly at street corners<\/span><\/p>\n

pausing to intuit the most advantageous route<\/span><\/p>\n

Do they watch me like a tv?<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I used to cover the front-facing<\/span><\/p>\n

cameras on laptops and phones<\/span><\/p>\n

with a pit of scotch tape<\/span><\/p>\n

hoping that it would foil<\/span><\/p>\n

any attempts at surveillance<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I often watch people\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Involuntarily out of the corners of my eye<\/span><\/p>\n

I was taught early that trust is a luxury<\/span><\/p>\n

This impropriety is hardwired in<\/span><\/p>\n

And has me listening\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

for the messages in inflections<\/span><\/p>\n

the erectness in the spine\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

the buckling of shoulders\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

of a passerby<\/span><\/p>\n

How wide, long,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

and quick\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

are the footsteps on\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

the sidewalk?<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Gobbling up these hints<\/span><\/p>\n

Hoping that, collectively,<\/span><\/p>\n

They will answer the question:<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We cool?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And if not,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I would rather be grounded<\/span><\/p>\n

And present enough\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

to ask the question:<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What would it take\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

to be able to look at each other\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

directly in the eye\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

on equal footing?<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I crane my head and stare up at the\u00a0 camera mounted on the side\u00a0 of a gleaming new high rise A little me is caught momentarily\u00a0 in a rounded black mirror   Whose charge is it to monitor\u00a0 the closed circuit broadcast while i\u2019m strafing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1292,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98751","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\/1292"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98751"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98754,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98751\/revisions\/98754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}