Every day she smiles<\/p>\n
with a cup of decaf<\/p>\n
\u201cY\u00e1\u2019\u00e1t\u2019\u00e9\u00e9h ab\u00edn\u00ed.\u201d (Good morning)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
She\u2019ll talk about the days<\/p>\n
of black and white photos<\/p>\n
when polaroid pictures were still new.<\/p>\n
For her in those days,<\/p>\n
the smiles came by a dozen.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
She would switch to<\/p>\n
family issues:<\/p>\n
of sickness and<\/p>\n
deaths from covid or natural.<\/p>\n
Her amber eyes droop to her mug<\/p>\n
as her wrinkled hands tighten.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
She thinks I don\u2019t listen to her.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
But her voice is<\/p>\n
shaking with each word.<\/p>\n
She continues<\/p>\n
and forces a smile<\/p>\n
\u201cI love you che\u2019e(daughter)\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
She waits.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cI love you to mom\u201d<\/p>\n
Her smile turns genuine.<\/p>\n
Her shoulders drop slightly,<\/p>\n
her grip loosens on the cup.<\/p>\n
\u201cGod loves you too.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I nod.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
She doesn\u2019t think I listen.<\/p>\n
Her words at times<\/p>\n
sting like a wasp<\/p>\n
as she leaves an awkward silence.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Her hair is loose<\/p>\n
and falls about her oval tanned face,<\/p>\n
with strands of silver and grey.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s still holding her decaf coffee,<\/p>\n
Her gaze is unfazed<\/p>\n
as she looks into my eyes<\/p>\n
searching and waiting for something.<\/p>\n
As if waking up, her creamed coffee eyes<\/p>\n
light up, \u201cMy coffee, I better drink it.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
She turns to leave,<\/p>\n
and her footsteps echoes<\/p>\n
love you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Every day she smiles with a cup of decaf \u201cY\u00e1\u2019\u00e1t\u2019\u00e9\u00e9h ab\u00edn\u00ed.\u201d (Good morning) She\u2019ll talk about the days of black and white photos when polaroid pictures were still new. For her in those days, the smiles came by a dozen. She would switch…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3277,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-half-marathon-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98801","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\/3277"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98801"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98801\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98832,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98801\/revisions\/98832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}