{"id":10308,"date":"2019-04-11T20:30:41","date_gmt":"2019-04-11T20:30:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/?p=10308"},"modified":"2019-04-12T16:49:10","modified_gmt":"2019-04-12T16:49:10","slug":"why-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/2019\/04\/why-not\/","title":{"rendered":"Why not?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why not write<\/strong><\/p>\n

Because the baby is crying,
\nthe bath water runs,
\nlettuce waits to be washed,
\nyour toddler yells for you to wipe.<\/p>\n

Or an old vet phones, please won\u2019t you help?
\nor it’s the Good News shelter needing you
\nto scrape the dishes
\nand throw away the trash.<\/p>\n

There’s a bottle, scotch that\u2019ll make your teeth grow hair
\nlike weeds sprouted in the garden.
\nMaybe you\u2019re just too polluted
\nor not buzzed enough;
\nall you can think of are butterflies
\nand that\u2019s so pathetic.
\nYour stock is at an all time low,
\nAnd you\u2019re not talking about investments.
\nMaybe it\u2019s all a Ponzi scheme that needs a few more suckers.<\/p>\n

An airplane sits on the tarmac
\nor a train from downtown arrives in just 15 minutes,
\nso you\u2019ll just think about things a while.
\nEpisode 1 is at the movies, no forget that,
\nbecause there\u2019s a good poem to read,
\na letter to write to your congressperson,
\nsome hems to sew,
\nor a PTA meeting to attend.<\/p>\n

You can put it off
\nfor just one more day
\nbecause you can\u2019t find your keys,
\nyour diaphragm, your Citibank Visa,
\nwhatever you\u2019ll make for dinner.
\nYour favorite author is reading at the bookstore tonight
\nand your son\u2019s hamster just died,
\nlittle claws clutching the cage.<\/p>\n

Because it is snowing and you must shovel
\nor the grass is just so long
\nor the leaves are there, mushing up the lawn
\nor the drain is clogged and the plumber’s on his way.
\nMaybe you should sell the house.<\/p>\n

Or perhaps it\u2019s menopause or maybe you\u2019re ovulating
\nor your meds just aren\u2019t doing the trick
\nand you\u2019ve gotten another call from school.<\/p>\n

Maybe it\u2019s all so damn depressing
\nlike nothing matters.
\nIt’s the beginning of the end
\nor the end of the beginning–
\nwhy not write?<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Ellen Wade Beals, 2006<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
Off Portobello Road \u00a9 Ellen Wade Beals, 2018<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why not write Because the baby is crying, the bath water runs, lettuce waits to be washed, your toddler yells for you to wipe. Or an old vet phones, please won\u2019t you help? or it’s the Good News shelter needing you to scrape the dishes and throw away the trash. There’s a bottle, scotch that\u2019ll […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2876,18,1632,12,2582,39,13,975,7,16,32],"class_list":{"0":"post-10308","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"tag-amwriting","8":"tag-anthology","9":"tag-ellen-beals","10":"tag-ellen-wade-beals","11":"tag-inspiration","12":"tag-photography","13":"tag-poetry","14":"tag-poetry-month","15":"tag-solace","16":"tag-solace-in-so-many-words","17":"tag-weighed-words","18":"entry","19":"has-post-thumbnail"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10308"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10327,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10308\/revisions\/10327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}