{"id":233,"date":"2025-04-17T00:17:29","date_gmt":"2025-04-17T00:17:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/20-2\/?page_id=233"},"modified":"2025-04-24T00:20:37","modified_gmt":"2025-04-24T00:20:37","slug":"growing-pains","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/20-2\/poetry\/growing-pains\/","title":{"rendered":"GROWING PAINS"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

When the bullet hit,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

it shocked me\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

like it was lightning\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

out of the sky,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

not a Glock from the window\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

of a car driving by.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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

I clutched my chest\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

and my knees buckled\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

but I didn\u2019t fall,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

not when I\u2019d been\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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

the bike shop,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

where I\u2019d been staring\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

in the window\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

wondering how I could\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

get my hands on a ten-speed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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

My chest was gushing blood like oil\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

but I stumbled away,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

toward the tenement where Michelle lived,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

not because I figured\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

she could do anything to help\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

but so she\u2019d realize I was old\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

enough to be shot,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

and not some kid who\u2019d rather have a bike\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

than his hands around a girl.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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

I crawled my way\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

to her address in the end,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

staining the sidewalk,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

head spinning in and out\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

of consciousness.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Someone called the rescue\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

and I survived.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Michelle was staying\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

at her aunt\u2019s, I heard later.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Never saw me sprawled\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

across the stoop.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So I almost died in vain.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Then I lived in vain.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I never had a bike.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And another kid got shot just after.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By John Grey When the bullet hit,\u00a0 it shocked me\u00a0\u00a0 like it was lightning\u00a0\u00a0 out of the sky,\u00a0 not a Glock from the window\u00a0\u00a0 of a car driving by.\u00a0 \u00a0 I clutched my chest\u00a0 and my knees buckled\u00a0 but I didn\u2019t fall,\u00a0 not when I\u2019d been\u00a0\u00a0 standing outside\u00a0 the bike shop,\u00a0 where I\u2019d been staring\u00a0\u00a0… Continue Reading GROWING PAINS<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":0,"parent":21,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-233","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/20-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/233","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=233"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/20-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":338,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/20-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/233\/revisions\/338"}],"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=233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}