{"id":223,"date":"2020-11-18T01:09:52","date_gmt":"2020-11-18T01:09:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/english.illinoisstate.edu\/euphemism\/16-1\/?page_id=223"},"modified":"2020-11-20T00:53:44","modified_gmt":"2020-11-20T00:53:44","slug":"identity-syndrome","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/16-1\/poetry\/identity-syndrome\/","title":{"rendered":"Identity Syndrome"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">IDENTITY SYNDROME<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It&#8217;s nine o&#8217;clock at night and the five star general<br>is babysitting his granddaughter. The CEO of<br>a Fortune 500 company kisses his wife on the cheek.<br>Cops drink beer. Crime lords sip whiskey.<br>The author of the latest great American novel<br>watches &#8220;Law And Order&#8221; on TV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lids are drowsy from President to Governor,<br>school superintendent to the second shift guys<br>at the fire-station. The mall is closed. Newspaper<br>headquarters are alive and kicking but the owners<br>are already in bed. For every doctor working the ER,<br>there&#8217;s two dozen half-sleeping on the couch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It&#8217;s the perfect time for me. I could take over<br>the war. I could step in for a titan of industry.<br>I could make an arrest\u2026of myself. I could<br>even write the great American novel now<br>that the competition has shut down for the evening.<br>And why not run the country, or the state at least.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And the schools are up for grabs. And I could<br>fight the fires long before the trucks arrived.<br>I could be the only one shopping the mall.. .and serving<br>myself. And, of course, I&#8217;d own the newspapers, tell them<br>what to print. And, if it&#8217;s all too much, no problem.<br>I&#8217;d give myself a clean bill of health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But what if someone else decides they&#8217;re going to live<br>my life? What if they hug my woman, eat my food, write<br>my poems while I&#8217;m off being someone else? Even in this<br>down time, I&#8217;d best stick with being who 1 am.<br>And yet, it&#8217;s nine o&#8217;clock at night and I could be anyone.<br>I just happen to be me when the choice is made.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-summary\">\nIDENTITY SYNDROME It&#8217;s nine o&#8217;clock at night and the five star generalis babysitting his granddaughter. The CEO ofa Fortune 500 company kisses his wife on the cheek.Cops drink beer. Crime lords sip whiskey.The author of the latest great American novelwatches&hellip;\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/16-1\/poetry\/identity-syndrome\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;Identity Syndrome&rdquo;<\/span>&hellip;<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"parent":5,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"templates\/no-intro.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-223","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/16-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/16-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/16-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/16-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/16-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/16-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":363,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/16-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/223\/revisions\/363"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/16-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/16-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}