{"id":153,"date":"2025-10-23T23:36:28","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T23:36:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/?page_id=153"},"modified":"2025-11-07T22:44:28","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T22:44:28","slug":"noontide","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/poetry\/noontide\/","title":{"rendered":"Noontide"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hailey Berk<\/span><\/p>\n

Take me down a chlorine memory<\/span><\/p>\n

Where time lives in sweet crumbs<\/span><\/p>\n

At the bottom of an Oreo Go-Pak<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Trek across well-kept lawns,<\/span><\/p>\n

Dodge verandas seeded with gossipers<\/span><\/p>\n

Petting high-strung show dogs<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Squeeze through the heavy back door,<\/span><\/p>\n

Over slick locker room mats<\/span><\/p>\n

Soaked in sweat and cheap shampoo<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Emerge<\/span><\/p>\n

Into the shimmering heat<\/span><\/p>\n

Of a sun in retrograde:<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Grandma\u2019s pool<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You take after Mom, always afraid<\/span><\/p>\n

To face the cold<\/span><\/p>\n

Dip a toe beneath the surface<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Leeching sunscreen<\/span><\/p>\n

As you wade, a pale oil spill<\/span><\/p>\n

Trails in your wake<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I\u2019ll watch as you go under,<\/span><\/p>\n

Hair billowing around your head<\/span><\/p>\n

Like a jellyfish in slow locomotion<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Let me stay here a while longer<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As the clock hands hit terminal,<\/span><\/p>\n

As you hoist yourself free, shivering<\/span><\/p>\n

Off in search of fresh towels<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Wrap me in chitin<\/span><\/p>\n

Make me a new<\/span><\/p>\n

Skin: glittering, cerulean<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As your footprints fade<\/span><\/p>\n

From the concrete,<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ll alight\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A flash of blue glass<\/span><\/p>\n

Against cloudless sky,<\/span><\/p>\n

Then dip<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dragged by some sickness of the brain<\/span><\/p>\n

Towards stagnant water<\/span><\/p>\n

As if to assuage this terrible thirst<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\nHailey Berk Take me down a chlorine memory Where time lives in sweet crumbs At the bottom of an Oreo…\n<\/div>\n
Continue reading “Noontide”<\/span>…<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":0,"parent":322,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-153","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":203,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/153\/revisions\/203"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}