{"id":405,"date":"2020-04-30T20:39:21","date_gmt":"2020-04-30T20:39:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/english.illinoisstate.edu\/euphemism\/15-2\/?page_id=405"},"modified":"2020-05-01T01:27:38","modified_gmt":"2020-05-01T01:27:38","slug":"dinner-date","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/15-2\/poetry\/dinner-date\/","title":{"rendered":"Dinner Date"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">by Maria Purpura<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It burns like acid<br>and you\u2019re not sure whether it\u2019s the food<br>or the company.\u00a0<br>She goes on about life and these<br>amazing things happening right now.<br>Her plate is full.\u00a0<br>Talking herself hoarse,<br>she chews words with the<br>few bites she ingests.<br>In order to distract myself<br>from the burning desire to have\u00a0<br>similar stories, beautiful men<br>showing me interest, a likewise wallet\u00a0<br>stacked thick with crisp bills,<br>I shove bite after bite after<br>bite of food in my mouth.<br>Nodding occasionally, as if\u00a0<br>immensely happy for her<br>fortune, ignoring the gnawing\u00a0<br>hunger<br>to live like she has.\u00a0<br>The food is bland, tastes empty<br>as my stomach fills and\u00a0<br>my waistband tightens\u00a0<br>around my hips,\u00a0<br>but it gives me a reason\u00a0<br>to stay silent, to weakly<br>smile, to take another<br>sip of water so I don\u2019t<br>choke.<br>IfeellikeI\u2019mchoking<br>I should be happy for her;<br>yet I bite my tongue,<br>remembering my mother\u2019s words:<br><em>If you have nothing nice to say\u00a0<\/em><br><em>say nothing at all.<\/em><br>She pays for the check<br>and declines a takeout box,<br>thanking me for my listening skills.<br>I forget to tell her that I got home safe\u00a0<br>and wear a green shirt to bed that night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Maria Purpura It burns like acidand you\u2019re not sure whether it\u2019s the foodor the company.\u00a0She goes on about life and theseamazing things happening right now.Her plate is full.\u00a0Talking herself hoarse,she chews words with thefew bites she ingests.In order to distract myselffrom the burning desire to have\u00a0similar stories, beautiful menshowing me interest, a likewise wallet\u00a0stacked&hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"toivo-read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/15-2\/poetry\/dinner-date\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read more <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Dinner Date<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"parent":9,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-405","page","type-page","status-publish","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/15-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/15-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/15-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/15-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/15-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/15-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":410,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/15-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/405\/revisions\/410"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/15-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/15-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}