Word Count: 270<\/p>\n

In a past life I was a sugar maple tree. Men with metal cut into my skin. My sap flowed like blood at their touch. My children were seeded with the wind until I grew old and brittle. One night in a thunderstorm that whipped at my branches, pulled at my rain-soaked leaves, I toppled, uprooted and died.<\/p>\n

In another I was a young vixen chased by the males every spring. Chased by horsemen and hounds in the bright beauty of autumn. Alone, I lay in my den with my babies in winter. Alone I faced one more spring.<\/p>\n

Once I was a young girl in the desert with thick shiny black hair and dark eyes. My husband was four times older with breath the putrid scent of dead blossoms. I gave him four children, all daughters. At twenty I was murdered, my newborn baby girl slaughtered too on my breast. Buried together under the light of a half moon while young men smoked and laughed.<\/p>\n

In my last life I was a virgin raped by the quarterback. A senior who afterward sputtered and called me a whore. He went on to Harvard. I birthed and gave his son up to strangers, went on to college and clawed my way in the world. I was the first executive caught in the downsizing. I was the first tragedy of the times.<\/p>\n

I wait and I watch as the earth revolves, evolves into society\u2019s utopian ideals. When asked to come back to grow into the first female president, I think very hard and go back to the end of the line.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Word Count: 270 In a past life I was a sugar maple tree. Men with metal cut into my skin. My sap flowed like blood at their touch. My children were seeded with the wind until I grew old and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,7],"tags":[22,21],"class_list":["post-552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-psychological-realism","category-womens-issues","tag-psychological-realism","tag-womens-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=552"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":949,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552\/revisions\/949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}