Treading Water<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Every new day is a leap of faith,<\/p>\n
Hope, when you drag through the air<\/p>\n
And take the plunge.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
But the deep water\u2019s cold and oppressive \u2014<\/p>\n
Claws raking up your skin,<\/p>\n
Exposing your bones. Leaking blood<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
So the warmth can leave you too.<\/p>\n
Hold your breath to keep it inside<\/p>\n
You. Else it\u2019ll be stolen. Poisoned.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Some days each breaking wave is enough to<\/p>\n
Overwhelm, the power to tear you from your feet<\/p>\n
With unmeasurable force.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
If you fight the Tide, you\u2019ll drift<\/p>\n
To some paradise of originality. But<\/p>\n
To fight is to expect fatal wounds.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Your legs writhe frantically<\/p>\n
But it is barely enough to keep your head<\/p>\n
Above the water.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Amy Nugent<\/em><\/strong>, 17<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Amy Nugent’s poem ‘Treading Water’ is the recipient of a 2020 Newcastle Poetry Competition\u00a0Young People’s Prize. Treading Water Every new day is a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3088,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[677,664,604,9],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3144"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3144"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3145,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3144\/revisions\/3145"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}