{"id":620,"date":"2011-07-13T10:37:45","date_gmt":"2011-07-13T18:37:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/onelife\/?p=620"},"modified":"2011-07-13T10:37:45","modified_gmt":"2011-07-13T18:37:45","slug":"the-last-ping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/?p=620","title":{"rendered":"THE LAST PING"},"content":{"rendered":"

This poem reminds me of the Ben Folds\/Joe Jackson\/William Shatner piece, Common People.<\/em> “Dance, drink, screw, ‘cos there’s nothin’ else to do!” Sometimes with fatal consequences.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Last Ping<\/strong><\/p>\n

After the girl is gone,
\nlong gone, out of character,
\nstatistical, presumed dead,
\nthe verifying department
\nhops to it, sniffs out
\nthe revelers,
\nespecially the life of the party,
\nhis liquid engine of beer,
\nanyone with information,
\nto confirm names and addresses,
\nsubstantiate stories.
\nThey watch your gestures.
\nRead your face.<\/p>\n

Description: Hair Blonde,
\nEye Color Blue, Height 5′ 1″,
\nWeight 101 lbs, phoenix tattoo
\nascending from the right hip.
\nBright, unintentional dropout,
\ninadvertently delinquent.
\nBoyfriend person of interest
\naccording to the RCMP.
\nAlways. He passes the flyer.
\nHer cell phone may be dead too,
\nlast ping traced\u2014pinpointed in fact\u2014
\nto here. Right here.
\nHer last known location.
\nRight where we\u2019re standing.
\nThis town. Your pretty little town.<\/p>\n

Fucken eh.
\nCheck your property,
\nyour shallow ditches,
\nSo petite, she takes up little space
\nin one\u2019s psyche,
\nturkey vultures leading us
\nnot to her
\nbody but to a deer carcass.
\nShe was last seen
\nwearing a blue ski jacket,
\nwhite blouse, black jeans.
\nParents pray
\nto repair the squabbles. Home.
\nLocal kids clam up,
\nweighting the secret with smoke.<\/p>\n

A teenaged girl can forget
\nshe\u2019s graduated
\nthe fenced-in yards of childhood
\nto this vast plain
\nwhere condoms provide safety,
\nsympathy muttered. Crocodile.
\nShe forgot
\ntownies find transcendence in fury,
\none vaguely recalling
\nEminem shouts,
\na catfight in the backyard.
\nShe looked kinda posh,
\nsmashed herd fumbling,
\nfawning, smooshing,
\npushing, over, under.
\nDancing, sending her sailing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This poem reminds me of the Ben Folds\/Joe Jackson\/William Shatner piece, Common People. “Dance, drink, screw, ‘cos there’s nothin’ else to do!” Sometimes with fatal consequences. The Last Ping After the girl is gone, long gone, out of character, statistical, presumed dead, the verifying department hops to it, sniffs out the revelers, especially the life […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[149,152,236,324],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}