{"id":248,"date":"2026-04-21T23:25:34","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T23:25:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-2\/?page_id=248"},"modified":"2026-04-29T22:11:46","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T22:11:46","slug":"race-with-time","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-2\/poetry\/race-with-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Race with Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ali Ashar<\/span><\/h1>\n

Responsibilities race against time<\/span><\/p>\n

as the aspirant battens down the hatches<\/span><\/p>\n

in a small adobe house<\/span><\/p>\n

where desert wind slips through cracked windows<\/span><\/p>\n

and the smell of red dust lingers.<\/span><\/p>\n

A new batch commences<\/span><\/p>\n

like the rising sun over mesas\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

harsh, unblinking, inevitable\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

amid the quiet ache of family debt<\/span><\/p>\n

and stories of\u00a0forefathers<\/span><\/p>\n

who tilled stubborn earth<\/span><\/p>\n

that yielded more silence than grain.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The table is laden with umpteen books,<\/span><\/p>\n

yet the onus of a meant-to-be persona<\/span><\/p>\n

makes the journey cumbersome\u00a0like<\/span><\/p>\n

restless sparrows in a drought-stricken yard.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A tint of flashback from the past somewhat<\/span><\/p>\n

alleviates the grim atmosphere.<\/span><\/p>\n

The horizon witnesses<\/span><\/p>\n

tireless nights and hopeless days<\/span><\/p>\n

under the vast sky.<\/span><\/p>\n

The bygone lanes of kinship dictate<\/span><\/p>\n

the competition,<\/span><\/p>\n

where life confronts<\/span><\/p>\n

the aspirant\u2019s character<\/span><\/p>\n

between the game of vows and emotions.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Flowing from the brimming shores of hope<\/span><\/p>\n

like the Rio Grande under the rain<\/span><\/p>\n

the breeze gushes\u00a0over and over<\/span><\/p>\n

through the years.<\/span><\/p>\n

The trajectory of coveted sunshine<\/span><\/p>\n

eventually rips the darkness apart.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ali Ashar Responsibilities race against time as the aspirant battens down the hatches in a small adobe house where desert wind slips through cracked windows and the smell of red dust lingers. A new batch commences like the rising sun over mesas\u2014 harsh, unblinking, inevitable\u2014 amid the quiet ache of family debt and stories of\u00a0forefathers… <\/p>\n

Read more Race with Time<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":0,"parent":21,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"elementor_theme","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-248","page","type-page","status-publish","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/248","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\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":286,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/248\/revisions\/286"}],"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=248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}