{"id":448,"date":"2022-09-21T15:05:57","date_gmt":"2022-09-21T19:05:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pensivejournal.com\/?p=448"},"modified":"2022-09-21T15:05:57","modified_gmt":"2022-09-21T19:05:57","slug":"just-like-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pensivejournal.com\/poetry\/just-like-that\/","title":{"rendered":"Just Like That"},"content":{"rendered":"
When our neighbor\u2019s son was gunned down At the beach when I was eight Once as my mother\u2019s nimble fingers Some nights I fell asleep reciting my parents\u2019\u00a0<\/span> storms that could sweep away my home and just like that When our neighbor\u2019s son was gunned down in Beirut when streets flooded after monsoon-like rains my parents would only say, inshallah things\u00a0 will get better At the beach when I was eight a flurry of people rushed into the water then returned, somber, carrying a young man\u2019s limp body on a raft Once as my…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":96,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"issue":[8],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nin Beirut
\nwhen streets flooded after monsoon-like rains
\nmy parents would only say, inshallah things\u00a0<\/span><\/i>
\nwill get better<\/i><\/p>\n
\na flurry of people rushed into the water
\nthen returned, somber,
\ncarrying a young man\u2019s limp body on a raft<\/p>\n
\nbraided my long black locks
\nI watched a war unfold on TV<\/p>\n
\nwords
\ninshallah things will get better<\/i>
\noften thinking that maybe I, too,
\ncould come face to face with a gun or a bomb\u00a0<\/span>
\nfrom the sky<\/p>\n
\nor whirlpools as I swam in the sea<\/p>\n
\nmy life would end
\na\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>little\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>brown\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>body\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>washed\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>ashore<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"