I have a tattoo of the grim reaper<\/p>\n
On my left arm<\/p>\n
Though I have not journeyed with him<\/p>\n
I feel we are close friends<\/p>\n
I have spent many a night<\/p>\n
Begging for him to collect me and<\/p>\n
Hold me in his arms like a long-lost sibling<\/p>\n
He has not indulged me<\/p>\n
For better or for worse<\/p>\n
He has instead visited me on nights<\/p>\n
That I have fallen into a sleep so deep<\/p>\n
It is as if I am sinking underwater<\/p>\n
He tells me tales of others like me<\/p>\n
Who after facing his bittersweet rejection<\/p>\n
Have cradled just a slither of hope<\/p>\n
And nurtured it, embraced it and<\/p>\n
Nourished it<\/p>\n
As if it were a tiny human<\/p>\n
Allowing it to grow, mature and blossom<\/p>\n
Until it nestled itself<\/p>\n
Into the darkest corners of the beggar\u2019s mind<\/p>\n
Screaming at the highest decibel<\/p>\n
Each time they pleaded with the reaper<\/p>\n
Until eventually<\/p>\n
They ceased imploring<\/p>\n
Knowing the reaper would knock gently<\/p>\n
When it was time to go<\/p>\n
Hope, is no small thing<\/p>\n
He declared, preparing to leave<\/p>\n
I nod and begrudgingly agree<\/p>\n
Hope has always lingered on the peripheries of my mind<\/p>\n
It is time to become truly acquainted<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Photo by Ian Espinosa<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I have a tattoo of the grim reaper On my left arm Though I have not journeyed with him I feel we are close friends …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":2653,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[170,213,169],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-poetry","category-solidarity"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/ian-espinosa-rX12B5uX7QM-unsplash-scaled.jpg?fit=1707%2C2560&ssl=1","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2535"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3299,"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2535\/revisions\/3299"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}