{"id":369,"date":"2026-04-29T22:09:48","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T22:09:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-2\/?page_id=369"},"modified":"2026-04-29T22:09:48","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T22:09:48","slug":"cracked-plaster","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-2\/poetry\/cracked-plaster\/","title":{"rendered":"Cracked Plaster"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stephen Mead<\/span><\/h1>\n

It\u2019s almost edible, this picture:<\/span><\/p>\n

Shadows tracing water stains, the lead fringe given to fingers\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

This is some woman with a parasol or perhaps a duck pond<\/span><\/p>\n

in off-white depending on the time of day.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

What does that child see, touch?<\/span><\/p>\n

It matters, I know\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

The windowsill’s smooth crisp chips to lick up poverty on<\/span><\/p>\n

a view of boarded up graffiti rattling with passing cars\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Dad, is Mom shopping?<\/span><\/p>\n

No. I’m not hungry.<\/span><\/p>\n

I have this\u2014that’s it\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

a submarine & I scuba dive ’round our room, ’round<\/span><\/p>\n

the globe well,<\/span><\/p>\n

no, not really but<\/span><\/p>\n

when I crawl, rest<\/span><\/p>\n

my head here on<\/span><\/p>\n

this spot it’s<\/span><\/p>\n

a game that I<\/span><\/p>\n

play.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stephen Mead It\u2019s almost edible, this picture: Shadows tracing water stains, the lead fringe given to fingers\u2014 This is some woman with a parasol or perhaps a duck pond in off-white depending on the time of day. \u00a0 What does that child see, touch? It matters, I know\u2014 The windowsill’s smooth crisp chips to lick… <\/p>\n

Read more Cracked Plaster<\/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-369","page","type-page","status-publish","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/369","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=369"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":371,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/369\/revisions\/371"}],"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=369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}