{"id":357,"date":"2026-01-31T10:02:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T10:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/?p=357"},"modified":"2026-02-18T20:58:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T20:58:26","slug":"january-seventy-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/?p=357","title":{"rendered":"January Seventy-First"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
It has become
the Internet\u2019s 
fond pastime
to bemoan 
and begrudge
those infinite
days of January.

That time 
between the 
first and 
the thirty-first
ever stretches
on in dark and 
grey and slushy
milliseconds.

And we laugh
temporarily 
when we see
a reel or post
or meme or 
thread that
proves 
we are not 
alone.

That others
too
feel the cold
slog of time
brings me
a certain
gallows unity.

That this year, 
then the next
is certainly
the worst
January yet.

But this year, 
2026, 
may really be
The 
Longest
January.<\/em>

Hyper-informed
yet 
under-powered,
I scroll through
tiny videos
and wee text 
on my 
Apple device, 
blue light
invading my 
retinas as I
witness 
pixelated 
mass tragedies
and brutal 
executions 
and hilarious
parodies 
and well-cited 
take-downs
then a delicious
Korean ribs 
recipe next AI 
capybaras
on a beach
followed by a 
solemn statement 
from a corporation 
taking a stance
on something
who knows what\u2014 <\/em>

What\u2019s this, 
Oh no! 
I pause
in my tracks
and mourn 
as I read the 
death 
announcement
for my 
favorite actor
Catherine
O\u2019Hara 
My on-screen
Mom<\/em>
My idol
gone
without 
warning
too young
at 71.
Kevin! <\/em>

Reeling, 
I continue 
my digital 
slot machine
pulls \u2014
come on, 
cherries \u2014 
willing the app
to serve me
sufficient 
explanations
for where 
the world
is going:

The Why 
of it all
is in here
I just know it.<\/em>

I glimpse 
the latest 
on the Budget
Will we 
shut down?<\/em>

Now
six stories
in a row:
hot takes 
from 
several 
somber
faces of 
followed
social 
influencers,
their heads 
superimposed
over thickly
redacted 
documents  
as they 
spell out
what lurks in 
the latest 
tranche
that\u2019s hit 
the web\u2014
all this 
zooms
past my 
winter-chapped
thumb.

I need
a manicure.<\/em>

I absorb 
and 
accumulate
the tension
the fear
the anger
the grief
the snark
the laughter
the umbrage
the homage
and the gore
which flow
from fingertip
to frontal lobe.

It has been
like this, 
for
every hour 
every day, 
since 
New Years.

I have
felt so deeply
so broadly
each headline
clip and 
cartoon and
sound bite
piercing my 
heart and 
the brain 
and my 
sympathetic 
nervous
system
Fight!
Flight! 
Freeze!
Fawn! <\/em>
in this 
first month
of 2026.

This January
I have 
lived 
through
decades 
centuries
millennia
Eternity.<\/em>

I close
the app
and bless
myself
with a
nano
prayer:

May 
tonight
end gently
and may
February
fly by.<\/em>
<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“January Seventy-First,” a typed-by-thumbs on iPhone poem for your scrolling pleasure. A musing on the endless days of the first month of the year and how a constant connection to the world can make it feel even longer. Poem 031 in a series of 365 poems written by Diana Ludwick in 2026. Photo: Macro view of previously melted now fraxelated rock salt on concrete, Diana Ludwick (c) 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,2],"tags":[38,167,168,124,9,163,169,164,166,165,43],"class_list":["post-357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2026-poetry-challenge","category-poems","tag-community","tag-doomscrolling","tag-fight-or-flight","tag-hope","tag-humor","tag-january","tag-prayer","tag-stress","tag-technology","tag-time","tag-winter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357","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=357"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":360,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357\/revisions\/360"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}