{"id":225,"date":"2025-01-08T16:46:57","date_gmt":"2025-01-08T21:46:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/willsisskind.com\/blog\/?page_id=225"},"modified":"2025-01-08T16:46:59","modified_gmt":"2025-01-08T21:46:59","slug":"ten-of-pentacles-aka-memo-to-myself","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/willsisskind.com\/blog\/poetry\/ten-of-pentacles-aka-memo-to-myself\/","title":{"rendered":"Ten of Pentacles, aka Memo to Myself"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Did this get kind of dark?<br>Are you cool with the fact<br>that it got kind of dark?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Okay. Now listen:<br>I know you have a massive imagination,<br>but you have no magic<br>in those swollen hands.<br>Your fingers can shoot neither fire<br>nor lightning, nor can cosmic rays<br>pulse forth from your palms<br>and melt someone&#8217;s face.<br>You cannot summon a fortune with magnetism,<br>with nothing but feckless charm.<br>You cannot change the minds of charlatans<br>who write manifestos in bad faith<br>with your faith alone.<br>Your chances feel slim, even futile.<br>Every sunset, every sequential darkness: Grim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Was that cringe?<br>Are you cool with the fact<br>that it got kind of cringe?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Okay. Now listen:<br>I know you have two hands and ten fingers<br>and two feet and ten toes.<br>The magic in them may not stream<br>from your imagination,<br>but it stems from your true strength.<br>Stretch out your arms, your legs,<br>your neck, and start.<br>You have work to do.<br>You cannot conceive of the work<br>to be done, but you know<br>that you need to do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The world is a bad place:<br>This is no excuse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When years from now,<br>future fighters ask you<br>where you were,<br>will you have excuses?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;If not now, when&#8221; is forever,<br>for every face, for every soul<br>in the fight against fascism and genocide,<br>for fairness among all generations.<br>And it seems fantastic<br>to stuff your face in the sand,<br>to put your hand inside the puppet head,<br>and drown out the marching band<br>commanding you to play your part.<br>You must keep a cool heart<br>and do the dumb things you gotta do.<br>Your work starts now,<br>but you are not alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Did that get kind of dark?<br>Okay. Now listen:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Your magic may not form fire,<br>but work hard, and you might burn bright<br>and bring on a better tomorrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(November 13, 2024)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<a href=\"https:\/\/willsisskind.com\/blog\/poetry\/ten-of-pentacles-aka-memo-to-myself\/\" rel=\"bookmark\" title=\"Permalink to Ten of Pentacles, aka Memo to Myself\"><p>Did this get kind of dark?Are you cool with the factthat it got kind of dark? Okay. Now listen:I know you have a massive imagination,but you have no magicin those swollen hands.Your fingers can shoot neither firenor lightning, nor can cosmic rayspulse forth from your palmsand melt someone&#8217;s face.You cannot summon a fortune with magnetism,with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":190,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-225","page","type-page","status-publish","h-entry","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willsisskind.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willsisskind.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willsisskind.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willsisskind.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willsisskind.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/willsisskind.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":226,"href":"https:\/\/willsisskind.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/225\/revisions\/226"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willsisskind.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willsisskind.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}