{"id":2170,"date":"2014-03-04T01:12:42","date_gmt":"2014-03-04T01:12:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/?p=2170"},"modified":"2017-07-12T01:52:35","modified_gmt":"2017-07-12T01:52:35","slug":"1956-by-ray-stiefvater","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/1956-by-ray-stiefvater\/","title":{"rendered":"1956 by Ray Stiefvater"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1394 lazyload\" data-src=\"http:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/ocean-300x194.png\" alt=\"ocean\" width=\"300\" height=\"194\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/ocean-300x194.png 300w, https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/ocean.png 983w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/194;\" \/><\/h2>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\">1956<\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">by Ray Stiefvater<\/p>\n<p>I am 14 or 15 here<br \/>\nI am at the local swimming pool<br \/>\non Overlook Drive in Schenley Park<br \/>\nI am trying to dive into the water<br \/>\nbut all I can muster is a<br \/>\npainful belly flop<br \/>\nthat stings my chest and stomach<\/p>\n<p>I am immediately embarrassed<br \/>\nbecause I am sure people have been<br \/>\nwatching me<br \/>\nI imagine them laughing<br \/>\nI plunge through the surface like a rock<br \/>\nthe water closes around me<br \/>\nit muffles the sounds of the world above me<\/p>\n<p>I drift down to the bottom of the pool<br \/>\nand remain there for as long as<br \/>\nmy breath holds out<br \/>\nI count to 20 and<br \/>\nbob to the surface like cork<br \/>\nI swim to the side of the pool<br \/>\nand climb the ladder out of the water<\/p>\n<p>I feel the sun\u2019s heat<br \/>\non the bottoms of my feet<br \/>\nshe is on the other side of<br \/>\nthe pool with two of her girlfriends<br \/>\nthey are smoking cigarettes and sunning themselves<br \/>\non large beach towels<br \/>\nshe is so absolutely perfect to me<\/p>\n<p>I squint through the blinding sunlight at her<br \/>\nshe glares at me over her sunglasses<br \/>\nit\u2019s a contemptuous look<br \/>\nit\u2019s like a slap on the back of<br \/>\nsomeone who\u2019s sunburned<br \/>\nshe can kill with her eyes<\/p>\n<p>I jump back into the pool and swim to the bottom<br \/>\nI want to drown and be over with it<br \/>\nI\u2019m so love sick<br \/>\nI hate myself bcause of it<br \/>\nI am 14 or 15 here and I love her with all my heart<br \/>\nbut of course she doesn\u2019t love me<br \/>\nI just irritate her like a paper cut<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I am 14 or 15 here<br \/>\nI am at the local swimming pool<br \/>\non Overlook Drive in Schenley Park<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[409],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-depression-poems"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2170\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}