{"id":2446,"date":"2018-02-15T12:00:34","date_gmt":"2018-02-15T12:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/translatingpain\/?p=2446"},"modified":"2018-03-29T23:11:58","modified_gmt":"2018-03-29T23:11:58","slug":"the-sick-mother","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/translatingpain\/2018\/02\/15\/the-sick-mother\/","title":{"rendered":"‘The Sick Mother’, by Amy Wray Irish"},"content":{"rendered":"

(after a poem by Jane Kenyon)<\/span><\/p>\n

The sick mother stayed in the car<\/span>
\n During swimming, music, dance.<\/span>
\n Not yet fifty,<\/span>
\n She had learned the many ways<\/span>
\n The able-bodied become just bodies.<\/span><\/p>\n

Afternoon always came too quick<\/span>
\n With its carpools and constant motion.<\/span>
\n She was still the secretary<\/span>
\n Of details and schedules.\u00a0<\/span>
\n Still indispensable.<\/span><\/p>\n

So in between finding the lost<\/span>
\n Shoes or suits or permission slips\u00a0<\/span>
\n And driving– always driving–<\/span>
\n She tilted her seat back, tucked<\/span>
\n A swim towel or bag beneath her head<\/span><\/p>\n

And let the pain pill sweep her into freedom.<\/span>
\n Free from the other mothers, lips pursed,<\/span>
\n Pulling their children away from hollow eyes.<\/span>
\n Free from the fathers, eyebrows raised,<\/span>
\n Lingering to admire gaunt cheekbones.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fever-flushed under windshield glass<\/span>
\n She is free to dream a storybook self,<\/span>
\n And a kiss to break the curse<\/span>
\n Of endless doctors, tests, and drugs.<\/span>
\n A fairy tale of never being sick again.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

– by\u00a0Amy Wray Irish<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

To read more see Creation Stories<\/a>, a book of poetry and art by Amy Wray Irish<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(after a poem by Jane Kenyon) The sick mother stayed in the car During swimming, music, dance. Not yet fifty, She had learned the many ways The able-bodied become just bodies. Afternoon always came too quick With its carpools and constant motion. She was still the secretary Of details and schedules.\u00a0 Still indispensable. So in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":619,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[47,46,18],"class_list":["post-2446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anthology","tag-disconnection","tag-escapism","tag-strangeness","post-preview"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8bHTD-Ds","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/translatingpain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/translatingpain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/translatingpain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/translatingpain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/619"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/translatingpain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2446"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/translatingpain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3006,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/translatingpain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2446\/revisions\/3006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/translatingpain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/translatingpain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/translatingpain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}