{"id":8575,"date":"2014-11-04T16:53:27","date_gmt":"2014-11-04T16:53:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/teachersandwritersmagazine.org\/?p=335"},"modified":"2023-02-22T16:03:59","modified_gmt":"2023-02-22T20:03:59","slug":"frowning-faces-empty-spaces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teachersandwritersmagazine.org\/frowning-faces-empty-spaces\/","title":{"rendered":"Frowning Faces &#038; Empty Spaces"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-style-plain is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>On the gray stone wall, keeping me captive<br>With faces unknown, lies an empty space<br>Matching the feelings confned inside of me<br>An empty space that should be flled with smiling faces<br>And big warm brown eyes shining down on me<br>Like stars in the night sky<br>Yet, there are pictures in my head of frowning brown faces<br>Lips that are lined with \u201cI told you sis\u201d and dark eyes that pierce me with their disappointment<br>No one smiles in these haunting mental images<br>Not a father, not a mother, nor a sister, nor a brother<br>Not a grandmother, may she rest in her eternal sleep<br>Looking down at me with narrowed eyes, her long arms crossed over her chest<br>Along with a little shake of her head<br>Like she used to do whenever she caught me laughing and talking with my friends<br>When I should\u2019ve been spending my time with her<br>No relative has a good thing to say<br>They give pity to my mother for the one daughter who ended up lost along the way<br>Their little hushed whispers fll my ears as I sit in this tiny space<br>Not with words of encouragement but words of distaste<br>So I hope you can now see why<br>I\u2019d rather sit in the cell staring at a blank gray wall<br>Than at the eyes that make me feel smaller than I already am<br>The guilt, the pain<br>That all these family photos bring<br>Are only reminders that it is I who I have to blame<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><em>2014<\/em><br><strong>Beauty in the Shadows<\/strong><br><em>High School anthology from Teachers Preparatory School (697K)<\/em><br><em>Edited by<span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twc.org\/meet-the-artists\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">\u00a0Sarah Dohrmann<\/span><\/a><\/span>, Writer-in-Residence<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>High School anthology from Teachers Preparatory School<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":8661,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","featured_image_focal_point":[],"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"2380,6940,3716,5200,6061,7116","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","_eb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[10],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachersandwritersmagazine.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8575"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachersandwritersmagazine.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachersandwritersmagazine.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachersandwritersmagazine.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachersandwritersmagazine.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8575"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/teachersandwritersmagazine.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14260,"href":"https:\/\/teachersandwritersmagazine.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8575\/revisions\/14260"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachersandwritersmagazine.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachersandwritersmagazine.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachersandwritersmagazine.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachersandwritersmagazine.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}