{"id":1986,"date":"2026-07-01T13:06:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T13:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/?p=1986"},"modified":"2026-07-05T14:30:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T14:30:11","slug":"two-fifty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/?p=1986","title":{"rendered":"Two Fifty"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Growing up 
I remember my Mom 
waxing narrative 
about the bicentennial
How special it was
To be a teenager 
living in Lexington
Celebrating ancestors 
on the same green
The pride, the heritage, 
the joy, the thrill

Here I am
Grown a stone\u2019s throw 
from the District 
And we\u2019re swiftly approaching 
This country\u2019s 
two hundred-fiftieth birthday

And we\u2019re in the round of sixteen 
in the World Cup 
where so many immigrants 
have made the planet proud.

And we\u2019re at war with Iran
who we bomb and dismiss
while we host them 
on our soccer pitches.

And our leader 
is throwing neighbors 
in jail 
over touching grass.
(Okay, algae).

And it\u2019s one hundred 
and seven 
degrees 
after five o' clock 
in the evening

And America\u2019s fair 
is only for
partisan patriots

But my elders were there,
were they not?

On the green
at Lexington 

In the woods
on horseback

Itching to change
to buck off mad kings
to create something new.

And maybe
two hundred fifty years
is long enough 
in this direction

Perhaps today\u2019s Mothers 
and Daughters
have visions
for an even better way.

What\u2019s next, fam?<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cTwo Fifty,\u201d an observation of lineage and change writ over more than two hundred fifty years of this place, with its fragile democracy and strong women. Written Wednesday, July 1, poem 182 in a series of 365 poems written by Diana Ludwick in 2026. “Good will Prevail,” photo of art made from 9\/12\/2001 front page, Diana Ludwick(c) 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2001,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1573,290,1574,1572,2],"tags":[1586,1579,1585,417,1584,1576,1581,1558,1578,1580,37,1257,1577,1582,134,1575,1583],"class_list":["post-1986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2026-poetry-challenge","category-generational-of-place","category-homage","category-lineage","category-of-place","category-poems","tag-algae","tag-american-revolution","tag-bicentennial","tag-country","tag-district-of-columbia","tag-happy-birthday","tag-iran","tag-july","tag-lexington-and-concord","tag-mad-kings","tag-neighbors","tag-of-place","tag-patriots","tag-round-of-sixteen","tag-summer","tag-two-hundred-fiftieth-anniversary","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1986","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=1986"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1986\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2076,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1986\/revisions\/2076"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}