{"id":3961,"date":"2023-08-20T20:14:47","date_gmt":"2023-08-20T20:14:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/?page_id=3961"},"modified":"2023-11-26T22:57:06","modified_gmt":"2023-11-26T22:57:06","slug":"it-is-all-bringing-me-down","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/vol-4-winter-2023-2024\/it-is-all-bringing-me-down\/","title":{"rendered":"It is all bringing me down"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Robert Lewis<\/em><\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

There is a\u00a0metal bar with two one-hundred-pound plates on each side,<\/span><\/p>\n

and it\u2019s stuck on my chest.<\/span><\/p>\n

Instead of asking for help, I ask Olivia, \u201cWhat would you do if I was a blue Jolly Rancher?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

only because she just told\u00a0me her favorite Jolly Rancher is the blue one.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

There are animals out there and they want something that is not square, I know,<\/span><\/p>\n

so here\u2019s a blue umbrella on a beach to distract them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a cloudless day in the middle of July,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

the beach crowded, except no one is under the umbrella.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Does the umbrella yearn for someone to protect <\/span><\/p>\n

from the unfiltered light of the sun?<\/span><\/p>\n

Maybe not everything yearns.<\/span><\/p>\n

The umbrella could yearn to be noticed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Or it could just be\u00a0happy to be alone, enjoying its summer vacation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Happy to be out of the cement garage.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Happy to spread its limbs.<\/span><\/p>\n

Happy to exist in the world on this sunny day.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s there if people need it<\/span><\/p>\n

and if they don’t it, it will just be happy\u00a0alone.<\/span><\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t care about the animals that it exists for.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As the weight sits on my chest,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I imagine walking down to the edge of a lake.<\/span><\/p>\n

The water clear, and the animals are coming, the umbrella not enough.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It is deep and fish swim around.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thick shrubs surround the lake, with birds flying in and out.<\/span><\/p>\n

I don’t see all this,<\/span><\/p>\n

all I can see is the cold rock bottom, how square it looks, and the chasing animals<\/span><\/p>\n

that want something I can\u2019t give them.<\/span><\/p>\n

I know they won’t stop chasing until they get it.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For now, this is all I got,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

and it\u2019s going to have to move this weight, because Olivia did nothing,<\/span><\/p>\n

and it\u2019s tiring me.<\/span><\/p>\n

And to feed the animals, when you find this line, <\/span><\/p>\n

think of this other line from John Mayer,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHold on to whatever you find, hold on to whatever will get you through.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Robert Lewis <\/strong>graduated this past May, and is from Bradley Beach, NJ. He writes, “I hope you enjoyed this poem, if you don\u2019t, that\u2019s cool. I will still like this poem a lot!”<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robert Lewis   There is a\u00a0metal bar with two one-hundred-pound plates on each side, and it\u2019s stuck on my chest. Instead of asking for help, I ask Olivia, \u201cWhat would … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2513,"featured_media":0,"parent":3525,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3961","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nIt is all bringing me down - Writers House Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/vol-4-winter-2023-2024\/it-is-all-bringing-me-down\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"It is all bringing me down - Writers House Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Robert Lewis   There is a\u00a0metal bar with two one-hundred-pound plates on each side, and it\u2019s stuck on my chest. 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