{"id":1817,"date":"2013-07-29T22:05:55","date_gmt":"2013-07-30T03:05:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/?p=1817"},"modified":"2013-08-16T08:58:50","modified_gmt":"2013-08-16T13:58:50","slug":"my-enemies-still-cant-rejoice-i-remain-the-last-leaf-on-the-tree-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/2013\/07\/29\/my-enemies-still-cant-rejoice-i-remain-the-last-leaf-on-the-tree-2\/","title":{"rendered":"My Enemies Still Can’t Rejoice\u2014I Remain the Last Leaf on the Tree"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here’s a new premortem: the new tumors growing in my lungs are still precancerous; the skin cancer is not life-threatening; whatever is destroying my hard palate is not <\/span>malignant; the <\/span>emphysema remains moderately severe; <\/span> the six stents in my heart continue to prevent another heart attack; <\/span>the congestive heart failure is flaring up; the chronic kidney disease remains moderate; the <\/span>peripheral <\/span>neuropathy is like walking on <\/span>Novocaine-injected feet. Nevertheless, as Tom Waits put it, I’m still the “last leaf on the tree.”<\/span><\/p>\n

They say I got staying power<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Here on the tree<\/em><\/strong> <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But I\u2019ve been here since Eisenhower<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/strong>And I\u2019ve out lived even he<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I\u2019m the last leaf on the tree<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The autumn took the rest but they won\u2019t take me<\/em><\/strong> <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m the last leaf on the tree<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

(Tom Waits)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s a new premortem: the new tumors growing in my lungs are still precancerous; the skin cancer is not life-threatening; whatever is destroying my hard palate is not malignant; the emphysema remains moderately severe; the six stents in my heart continue to prevent another heart attack; the congestive heart failure is flaring up; the chronic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[173,12319],"class_list":["post-1817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-autobiography","tag-dying"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1817"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1817\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1864,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1817\/revisions\/1864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}