{"id":406,"date":"2020-12-23T15:06:46","date_gmt":"2020-12-23T15:06:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/?p=406"},"modified":"2020-12-23T15:06:46","modified_gmt":"2020-12-23T15:06:46","slug":"first-and-last","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/first-and-last\/","title":{"rendered":"First and Last"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a>First and Last<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Before I was born, letters<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>between Mom and Dad<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>showed that Blackie was a sickly pup,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>maybe worms. She always came home<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>from the vet. Until that day. I knew<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>she wasn\u2019t coming back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Behind the house, Dad dug her grave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I have memories of Mom:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>hitting the softball<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>over everyone\u2019s head,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>helping me with the Gobi Desert<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>presentation for school,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>later, at the rehab center, her withered body<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>dressed in her favorite maroon sweatshirt,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>feeding-tube hanging out from under<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>the hem. We celebrated Christmas:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>her children, grandchildren,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>husband of 60 years<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>at her bedside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I knew it would be the last.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At Weatherford\u2019s, I received<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>her mahogany box of ashes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Up the River<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Albany Poets<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 8<sup>th<\/sup> Issue<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>First and Last Before I was born, letters between Mom and Dad showed that Blackie was a sickly pup, maybe worms. She always came home from the vet. Until that day. I knew she wasn\u2019t coming back. Behind the house, Dad dug her grave. I have memories of Mom: hitting the softball over everyone\u2019s head,&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/first-and-last\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">First and Last<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-published-poems"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":407,"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406\/revisions\/407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}