{"id":229,"date":"2025-04-17T00:15:20","date_gmt":"2025-04-17T00:15:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/20-2\/?page_id=229"},"modified":"2025-04-24T00:11:49","modified_gmt":"2025-04-24T00:11:49","slug":"that-thrill-seeker-emma-at-seventeen","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/20-2\/poetry\/that-thrill-seeker-emma-at-seventeen\/","title":{"rendered":"THAT THRILL-SEEKER, EMMA AT SEVENTEEN"},"content":{"rendered":"

By John Grey<\/span><\/p>\n

Dark clouds thicken over the lake.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lightning could strike its waters any moment\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s the most perverse of swimmers\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

who splashes and laughs in the face of such threat.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Or she’s riding her luck.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

No, she’s riding my luck.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One brisk bolt burns her to a crisp\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

and she’s got all the good fortune of the dead.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I’d be the one crawling back to the truck,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

cursing the fates, the sky, like thunder.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Rollercoaster roars through the hot summer night.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

From my vantage point, it seems powered by screams.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She could pass out. She could be sick\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

all over the car in front. So why am I the one\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

at most risk of these things? Why is it my\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

heart palpitating overtime, my hand reaching\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

up to my mouth before the retching begins?\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I’m just the spectator but the danger’s with me.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She drives so fast, I’d never survive the crash.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She’s so careless with drugs that one day I might overdose.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Everything she does, I face the consequences,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

despite my prudence, my caution.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The most hazardous thing I do is love her.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She easily survives the fall.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By John Grey Dark clouds thicken over the lake.\u00a0 Lightning could strike its waters any moment\u00a0 It’s the most perverse of swimmers\u00a0 who splashes and laughs in the face of such threat.\u00a0 Or she’s riding her luck.\u00a0 No, she’s riding my luck.\u00a0 One brisk bolt burns her to a crisp\u00a0 and she’s got all the… Continue Reading THAT THRILL-SEEKER, EMMA AT SEVENTEEN<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":0,"parent":21,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"elementor_theme","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-229","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/20-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/20-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/20-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/20-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/86"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/20-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/20-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":263,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/20-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/229\/revisions\/263"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/20-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/20-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}