{"id":4188,"date":"2026-06-16T20:39:43","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T19:39:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chrislamb.com\/?p=4188"},"modified":"2026-06-16T20:39:43","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T19:39:43","slug":"the-thing-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chrislamb.com\/?p=4188","title":{"rendered":"The Thing Is"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">to love life, to love it even<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">when you have no stomach for it<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">and everything you\u2019ve held dear<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">crumbles like burnt paper in your hands,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">your throat filled with the silt of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When grief sits with you, its tropical heat<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">thickening the air, heavy as water<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">more fit for gills than lungs;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">when grief weights you down like your own flesh<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">only more of it, an obesity of grief,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">you think,&nbsp;<em>How can a body withstand this?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Then you hold life like a face<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">between your palms, a plain face,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">no charming smile, no violet eyes,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">and you say, yes, I will take you<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I will love you, again.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n<cite>Copyright Credit: Ellen Bass, <br>\u201cThe Thing Is\u201d from&nbsp;<em>Mules of Love<\/em>. <br>Copyright \u00a9 2002 by Ellen Bass.<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p53QCd-15y","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chrislamb.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chrislamb.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chrislamb.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrislamb.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrislamb.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4188"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrislamb.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4190,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrislamb.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4188\/revisions\/4190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chrislamb.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrislamb.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrislamb.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}