{"id":58538,"date":"2026-02-16T01:06:50","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T06:06:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/?p=58538"},"modified":"2026-02-16T04:51:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T09:51:11","slug":"they-leave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/poetry\/they-leave\/","title":{"rendered":"They Leave"},"content":{"rendered":"<script>\nfunction showWarning_enUS() {\n    var content_warning_list = document.getElementById(\"content-warning-enUS\");\n\n    if (content_warning_list.style.display === \"none\") {\n        content_warning_list.style.display = \"block\";\n    } else {\n        content_warning_list.style.display = \"none\";\n    }\n}\n<\/script><div lang=\"en-US\" dir=\"ltr\" class=\"content-warning-container-ltr\"><p><strong class=\"content-warning-title\">Content warning:<\/strong><br\/><button onclick=\"showWarning_enUS()\">Show warnings<\/button><\/p><div class=\"content-warning\" id=\"content-warning-enUS\" style=\"display: none;\" ><p>This page contains: <\/p><ul><li>Blood<\/li><\/ul><\/div><br\/><\/div>\n<p>The mother tide goes out. And stays.<br \/>\nSends me a text. Three emojis:<br \/>\nYellow hand waving.<br \/>\nPalm tree.<br \/>\nPalm tree.<br \/>\nFish rot on the desert floor, and the<br \/>\nSmell of old ashtrays<br \/>\nFills my ears with the hollow<br \/>\nWringing of gnarled hands.<\/p>\n<p>The bloody moon sails away.<br \/>\nIt\u2019s me not you, and the<br \/>\nHole in the sky still weeps sticky tears.<br \/>\nCome see, but the<br \/>\nGuests are mannikins<br \/>\nTrapped in their chairs forever.<br \/>\nNo one does the dishes.<\/p>\n<p>I tried to step off, once or twice<br \/>\nEons ago, but the anguish of the<br \/>\nWorld left<br \/>\nImprints in my doughy skin.<br \/>\nHeld me fast.<br \/>\nOur scars might fit, I cry, but<br \/>\nOnly the crows will listen.<\/p>\n<p>Babies are the worst.<br \/>\nOne blink and they've crashed the<br \/>\nShip. Stepped onto a newsworthy plane.<br \/>\nStopped answering their phone.<br \/>\nJesus, Dad. It died. No big deal.<br \/>\nThe tooth fairy skips your house, and<br \/>\nDusty presents scream from the<br \/>\nEmpty living room.<\/p>\n<br class=\"clear_both\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s me not you, and the \/ Hole in the sky still weeps sticky tears.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[730],"class_list":["post-58538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","tag-no-content-warning"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p82q22-fea","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58538"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58538\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58604,"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58538\/revisions\/58604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}