{"id":198559,"date":"2021-11-01T12:00:53","date_gmt":"2021-11-01T12:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=198559"},"modified":"2021-10-30T05:21:02","modified_gmt":"2021-10-30T04:21:02","slug":"that-old-brown-shoe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2021\/11\/that-old-brown-shoe\/","title":{"rendered":"That Old Brown Shoe"},"content":{"rendered":"

A newborn is tightly snug in her embrace,
\nHer belly swollen no more.
\nEndearingly she desperately tries to look at his face.
\nYet he shows no interest, his brown leather shoes resting on a footstool.
\nCould it be- That he is in a far-off place?
\nThis distance, this rejection seems impossible to erase.<\/p>\n

She is craving for him to bond with the infant,
\nYet he is so distant?
\nShe breathes in and he seems indifferent.
\nHow can this be happening? Are these thoughts she is imagining?<\/p>\n

His love used to be intoxicating
\nNow all she feels is loathing
\nLooking at that old brown shoe,
\nShe feels like she is suffocating.
\nThere\u2019s no comfort, no support, she feels her heart almost palpitating.<\/p>\n

He is far off in a distant land.
\nOblivious to her needs, how can he not understand?
\nThis is our child, together we planned.
\nThe newborn needs her feed.
\nInside the mum`s heart bleeds
\nThe maternal instinct arises
\nLooks deeply into her baby`s eyes.
\nTries to console herself.
\nShe realizes that her happiness is in her arms.
\nA baby, so delicate, so pure.
\nWho needs a man to feel secure?
\nThe baby looks at her lovingly
\nInside she is broken, yet this pain she must endure.
\nBut she manages to say I love you baby.
\nThis pain shall be no more,
\nSo, put those ugly shoes on the floor, and walk out that door.
\nI have my baby-\u00a0bonjour!<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n_____________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Dr Usha Roopnarain \u2013 Former parliamentarian in the National Assembly of South Africa, social activist and passionate about human rights and gender equality.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A newborn is tightly snug in her embrace,
\nHer belly swollen no more.
\nEndearingly she desperately tries to look at his face.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":186568,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[868],"class_list":["post-198559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry-format","tag-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}