{"id":147,"date":"2026-04-07T22:05:25","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T22:05:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-2\/?page_id=147"},"modified":"2026-04-09T17:49:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T17:49:19","slug":"distance","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-2\/poetry\/distance\/","title":{"rendered":"Distance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Renee Kalagayan<\/span><\/p>\n

My Papa\u2019s voice made a bicep of his tongue. His tenor notes<\/span><\/p>\n

bright stars in the Florence sky. A pearl<\/span><\/p>\n

in my palm. Papa was<\/span><\/p>\n

a singer until he could no longer hear the notes.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I\u2019m with him in the middle of March, and Papa<\/span><\/p>\n

puts on his Christmas with Glen Campbell CD<\/span><\/p>\n

because he cannot bear the silence. I migrate to the kitchen<\/span><\/p>\n

and Campbell croons,<\/span><\/p>\n

a distant bell is ringing,<\/em> what is left of Papa<\/span><\/p>\n

trailing behind me like a lost child.<\/span><\/p>\n

He sits like a stone in a dining chair<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

he\u2019s pulled with difficulty into the kitchen. He says nothing,<\/span><\/p>\n

laughs when I laugh because I am laughing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hugs me before bedtime and grips my arms<\/span><\/p>\n

harder than before. Recollects to me<\/span><\/p>\n

cherry ice cream on the couch. Buttered rice on the gas stove.<\/span><\/p>\n

The scent of my hair. How I take my coffee.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What he fears he\u2019ll forget\u2014yellowhammer song, sprig of my night-<\/span><\/p>\n

colored hair against his leathered palm.<\/span><\/p>\n

He touches me like I will shatter.<\/span><\/p>\n

He is trying to hold moments in his hands.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Renee Kalagayan My Papa\u2019s voice made a bicep of his tongue. His tenor notes bright stars in the Florence sky. A pearl in my palm. Papa was a singer until he could no longer hear the notes.   I\u2019m with him in the middle of March, and Papa puts on his Christmas with Glen Campbell… <\/p>\n

Read more Distance<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":0,"parent":21,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-147","page","type-page","status-publish","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":150,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/147\/revisions\/150"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}