{"id":394,"date":"2025-12-05T22:27:48","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T22:27:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flounderingartist.com\/37-2\/about-this-space\/?p=394"},"modified":"2025-12-05T22:27:50","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T22:27:50","slug":"marble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flounderingartist.com\/37-2\/about-this-space\/marble\/","title":{"rendered":"Marble-"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"\">I lost a marble under the couch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">It was swirls of green and blue that could have been the Earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">It held my whole world.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">My hopes and dreams<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Getting dusty in the deep<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">I stretched my fingers, wiggled the will from them&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Reaching for a chance to be alive.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">The broom tried to get it rolling.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">The corner molding held it steadfastly magnetized out of reach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">My coroner was coming to identify me.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Cut me up piece by piece to answer&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">what brought me to this death.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">If he gets that chance he\u2019ll see it wasn\u2019t a cancer that blackened my lungs,&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">or a staph infection that overran my system.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">He\u2019ll find it was my imperfect heart tied to an imperfect heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">If I could reach that shiny marble, I could turn it all around.<br>I could live behind a picket fence with a golden retriever and tomcat that watch the perimeter and keep my family safe.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Both arms flail forward and I howl,&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">I belly-crawl with kicking legs<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">I can\u2019t get any closer than this<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">From that far-off corner, my marble begins to glow.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">It wants to reach me too.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">But I am weak.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">My charisma is less than nothing.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">I couldn\u2019t lure an eyelash that fell off my own face to land on my own cheek.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">I throw a bucket of water in the marble\u2019s direction,&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">hoping to wash it back into my empty life.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">I sit up and lean against the far wall.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Tears overflow,&nbsp;&nbsp;stuck between finding my marble and death.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">In another world, I\u2019d pick my retirement home the way I picked my nursery school.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Because a boy I loved was there first waiting for me.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">But in this world, I only hope is that I can dream of another day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">That if I had one day I\u2019d find a reason to live another and another.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">I\u2019d string days into a necklace of prayer beads,&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">wrapped around my neck again and again a noose that leads to a life that ends in old age.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I lost a marble under the couch. It was swirls of green and blue that could have been the Earth. It held my whole world.&nbsp; My hopes and dreams Getting dusty in the deep I stretched my fingers, wiggled the will from them&nbsp; Reaching for a chance to be alive.&nbsp; The broom tried to get [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[15],"class_list":["post-394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","author-cejafi"],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Marble- Floundering Artist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/flounderingartist.com\/37-2\/about-this-space\/marble\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Marble- Floundering Artist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I lost a marble under the couch. 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