{"id":9196,"date":"2025-10-24T15:38:36","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T15:38:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/?post_type=article&p=9196"},"modified":"2025-10-24T15:38:36","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T15:38:36","slug":"i-used-to-be-much-faster","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/article\/i-used-to-be-much-faster\/","title":{"rendered":"I Used to Be Much Faster"},"content":{"rendered":"

Damn the sun, let\u2019s just go.<\/em> My friend Dee said. So we sprinted, the sweat-soaked air pressing our skin as if a rag in our mother\u2019s hand. This heart hammers. This small heart made to collapse. All I want is to lie like the grasses. But she embraces me with her eyes, arms pumping, I won\u2019t let anything happen to you.<\/em> Love comes in unexpected pairs. I\u2019m a head and a half taller. Her hair flows along both sides of her shoulders. Parentheses. Pantheress? I am hairless and large. A whale breaching the surface, fins flipping. Fat & light on his feet<\/em>. Another offered once. I\u2019ve known what it means to swim in shame. To lower my lashes at words placed on the crest of my belly. What is flesh but our ancestors rising from the surface of our skin? My family is built wide and low. The better to submerge. But they made me this floating creature breaching the blue. I have swum so fast, fins peeling, that I smelled the pepper of my elders\u2019 clap from wide, low savannas. I believed my eyes were black until I saw the sun in my reflection. A panther can run as fast as she likes; I only crave the depths.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Damn the sun, let\u2019s just go. My friend Dee said. So we sprinted, the sweat-soaked air pressing our skin as if a rag in our mother\u2019s hand. This heart hammers. This small heart made to collapse. All I want is to lie like the grasses. But she embraces me with her eyes, arms pumping, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":9197,"template":"","categories":[9,49,119],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9196","article","type-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aquifer","category-literary-features","category-poetry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nI Used to Be Much Faster - The Florida Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/article\/i-used-to-be-much-faster\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"I Used to Be Much Faster - The Florida Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Damn the sun, let\u2019s just go. My friend Dee said. 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