{"id":198,"date":"2026-01-17T19:36:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T19:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/?p=198"},"modified":"2026-01-18T01:53:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T01:53:16","slug":"five","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/?p=198","title":{"rendered":"Five"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<pre class=\"wp-block-verse\">The Princess greets us at the door<br>Scarlet tendrils of gleaming synthetic<br>Cascade down her tiny frame<br>Center part laced to mesh moves as she itches her head.<br><br>I\u2019m five! She announces <br>She swishes her iridescent tail<br>Adjusts her taffeta shell gown.<br><br>Her tiara is inconvenient; <br>off it comes.<br>The mermaid swims away,<br>over to Grandma\u2019s arms.<br><br>To any member of her makeshift court, she trumpets:<br>There\u2019s cheese! Mom\u2019s gonna be a crab!<br>My dad made my birthday cake himself -- <br>chocolate with purple frosting -- Just for me! <br><br>All apprised, she conducts a tour of her cove of treasures:<br>That\u2019s my doll house! These are my magnets!<br>There\u2019s my baby doll. Here\u2019s my race car! <br>That\u2019s my brother! She points.<br><br>This tiny whirlwind towers yet<br>over a room of assembled toddlers and babes<br>No doubt who\u2019s in charge, she emanates<br>Big Sister Eldest Daughter Vibes.<br><br>Dazzling streamers, golden glitter, sparkly balloons<br>Shimmery decals, aquatic costumes, sea-themed appetizers<br>a house full of loved ones, three generations one roof.<br>Core memory loading; this is five.<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cFive,\u201d an under-the-sea experience with a milestone birthday girl, Poem 017 in a series of 365 poems written by Diana Ludwick in 2026. Photo, life aquatic at Maui Ocean Center (c) Diana Ludwick<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2026-poetry-challenge","category-poems"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=198"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":202,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198\/revisions\/202"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}