<\/p>\n
Soulless<\/p>\n
A shoe walked in for miles and miles<\/p>\n
Worn through to threadbare<\/p>\n
Incapable of caring that the foot it carries<\/p>\n
Is cut upon the glass it treads<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A farmer<\/p>\n
So neglectful of the flock<\/p>\n
That when one is sick it is left to rot<\/p>\n
Each breath a decomposing while the farmhand does his best to understand<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
But while the foot the shoe carries is bleeding<\/p>\n
It is the hand of the same body that scattered the shards<\/p>\n
Carefully chosen to make ribbons of the flesh<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
And while the farmhand cries silent tears<\/p>\n
The farmer has not let the rotting carcass linger<\/p>\n
In its sickness it is taken far away<\/p>\n
Far from the eyes of the young farmhand<\/p>\n
To the foot of the mountains<\/p>\n
The farmer shoulders its weight so it would not suffer for the journey<\/p>\n
And lets its blood water the soil where the rest of the flock would graze the next day<\/p>\n
It was quick and merciful and dignified<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
But despite the care and loving hand<\/p>\n
It is the job of the farmhand to dispose of the body<\/p>\n
Now that it\u2019s buried<\/p>\n
In a pit wide and deep and covered in the flowers only found clutched white-knuckled in the hands of those smoking outside the funeral home<\/p>\n
Taking a break from paying their respects<\/p>\n
What does the farmhand do when the flock is grazing the following morning<\/p>\n
And finds as each head is counted<\/p>\n
There is one more than there should be<\/p>\n
A sheep with wilting funeral flowers adorning its dirty wool coat<\/p>\n
And a scar where its throat was once laid bare<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Garrett Roth Soulless A shoe walked in for miles and miles Worn through to threadbare Incapable of caring that the foot it carries Is cut upon the glass it treads A farmer So neglectful of the flock That when one is sick it is left to rot Each breath a decomposing while the farmhand does his best to understand But while the foot the shoe carries is bleeding It is the hand of the same body that scattered the shards Carefully chosen to make ribbons of the flesh And while the farmhand cries silent tears The…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"parent":32,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-117","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/18-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/18-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/18-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/18-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/18-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/18-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":118,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/18-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/117\/revisions\/118"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/18-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/32"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/18-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}