{"id":8052,"date":"2021-11-23T17:55:01","date_gmt":"2021-11-23T17:55:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/?p=8052"},"modified":"2021-11-23T18:13:04","modified_gmt":"2021-11-23T18:13:04","slug":"constellation-of-damage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/?p=8052","title":{"rendered":"“CONSTELLATION OF DAMAGE”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Been so busy I’ve been neglecting my site\/blog; find nearly a hundred spam messages upon returning. Apparently\u00a0I can learn how to trim my dog\u2019s nails, make a fortune with passive income\/cryptocurrency, acquire free advertising on Google, buy a super backpack or team up with a group of highly qualified ethical hackers for a small fee of $1500. Thanks but this poet has no time for anything other than toiling away in a vacuum, struggling to be relevant. Enclosed please find a work-in-progress.<\/p>\n

Speaking of damage, my heart goes out to fellow British Columbians devastated by recent flooding and landslides. All those towns are significant, having had the opportunity to travel most of this incredible province. And fuck you, climate change deniers.<\/p>\n

CONSTELLATION OF DAMAGE<\/strong>
\nTo be delineated at a later date<\/em><\/p>\n

HOME
\nMy poor little infant head
\nwedged between bed and dresser,
\nwailing unheard above the thunder
\nby parents beneath the clothesline.
\nPerpetual white bolt, mark of Thor
\nbetween my brows,
\nthe price of fresh flannel sheets.<\/p>\n

Routinely bashed, walloped.
\nLuminous prairie day,
\nblindly chasing a baby Lab
\nuntil slamming into a thicket
\nof wooden oil drum stand,
\neight-year-old brains
\nnearly knocked clear out of my skull,
\nenough sense retained to instruct
\nthe hysteric through bloody irises.
\n\u201cMom, call Jerry. Mom, call Jerry
\nnext door. He can take me to the doctor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scrub. Me. The game.
\nLeft knee gashed while sliding
\ninto second base,
\nconcealed broken pop bottle
\non a baseball diamond
\nroughly hewn from fields of grass.
\nNo pain but I glanced down,
\nleg scarlet, cried realizing the terrifying injury
\nand snuck into the house to apply first aid.<\/p>\n

SCHOOL
\nBraids yanked,
\nknuckles rapped via metal edged ruler.
\nAmbushed on the playground,
\nstabbed in the arm with an HB pencil,
\nhard head bonked with a soft ball,
\npelted with rocks, conked,
\nwelted with spiky horse chestnuts.<\/p>\n

Near fatal car accident No 1.
\nFlinty rain slicked Fraser Valley road,
\nnewly licenced boyfriend lost to the wheel,
\nPlymouth Duster grill colliding
\nwith lone elm within an infinite pasture,
\nsix bodies thrown and sundry broken bones.<\/p>\n

YOUNG ADULT
\nThe Slits at Temple Beautiful, San Francisco.
\nEschewing a lengthy Ladies Room queue
\nto pee behind a bush
\nin the Roman Catholic church yard next door.
\nPoised atop a towering wrought iron fence,
\ncertain I was quicksilver,
\nleapt off into into the dusk,
\nright knee suddenly meeting blunt concrete.
\nSo clever. Damn thing still goes out on me.<\/p>\n

Burgled. Pursued by armed robber.
\nGang bangers.
\nSpurned; lovers, impotent A&R guys.
\nDestitute. Chased down a fluttering Lincoln
\nfaced 5-dollar bill. Got to eat that day.
\nBest hot dog ever.
\nSix-year marriage, strung out on cocaine.
\nRoutinely throttled, slapped.
\nCracked ribs. Riots.
\nEscape north. Homeland.<\/p>\n

MIDDLE AGE
\nNear fatal car accident No 2.
\nHarrowing close call,
\nbuzzed by a spring-fevered motorcyclist.
\nDeeply upside down in a trench on the S-curve.
\nPrecious son and I survived
\nhis scratches, my separated shoulder.
\nTo be continued, fates willing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Been so busy I’ve been neglecting my site\/blog; find nearly a hundred spam messages upon returning. Apparently\u00a0I can learn how to trim my dog\u2019s nails, make a fortune with passive income\/cryptocurrency, acquire free advertising on Google, buy a super backpack or team up with a group of highly qualified ethical hackers for a small fee […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8052"}],"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=8052"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8052\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8059,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8052\/revisions\/8059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}