{"id":895,"date":"2026-03-31T19:40:51","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T19:40:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/?p=895"},"modified":"2026-03-31T19:41:32","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T19:41:32","slug":"late","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/?p=895","title":{"rendered":"Late"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
9:41:01 a.m., incoming text:<\/strong>
\u201cYou are late\u201d
The heat from her words
melts my Apple watch.
\"Oh!\" I snap out of my trance.

I\u2019d told her we would leave
for the dentist at 9:40 a.m.
That is, before I fell into a side quest:
spring cleaning my closet.

On school days, our roles reverse.
But today it\u2019s her turn to wait,
and she\u2019s quick to judgment.
I don't reply. 

9:41:30 a.m. incoming images:<\/strong>
Photo evidence 
of her promptness,
two POV snaps 
from her seat
in my car 
in the garage. 

I don't rush; no need.
I gather my bag, swig tea,
find my sunnies, and 
select the right shoes.

I exit from the mud room,
see her seething in the back.
\"You're LATE<\/em>!\" She exclaims, 
half-snarl, half-glee at catching me.

\"Ma-ommmmm! Come on. 
You said '9:40!' We're late<\/em>.\"
I nod, silently, nonplussed.
This is fun, being unruffleable! 

\"If you say you're gonna BE 
somewhere, at a certain time,
then you should BE THERE!\" 
She underlines and bolds her points.

\"How does it feeeeeeeel<\/em>?\" 
I query, not at all guilty.
She rolls her eyes and parries:
\"I expected more from you.\"

I hope this moment 
stays with her 
next school day, 
when she demands
yet another ride. 

Because I already know that
on that day, I'll be there, prompt.
Mummifying in the driver seat 
losing the remnants of my mind.<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cLate,\u201d a reversal of habitual roles, and a musing on parenting. Written March 31, poem 090 in a series of 365 poems written by Diana Ludwick in 2026. “You are late,” a scathing analysis from a teen in the car. Photo by Diana Ludwick (c) 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":902,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,2],"tags":[438,437,258,177,9,40,439,232,10,440],"class_list":["post-895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2026-poetry-challenge","category-poems","tag-car-ride","tag-dentist","tag-dry-humor","tag-generations","tag-humor","tag-kids","tag-late","tag-march","tag-parenting","tag-role-reversal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895","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=895"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":904,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895\/revisions\/904"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}