{"id":7363,"date":"2026-03-28T01:57:05","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T05:57:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/philgeist.com\/blog\/?p=7363"},"modified":"2026-03-28T02:11:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T06:11:31","slug":"the-vacant-stairwell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philgeist.com\/blog\/the-vacant-stairwell\/","title":{"rendered":"Vacant Stairwell"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"572\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/philgeist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/img_0119-572x1024.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7362\" srcset=\"https:\/\/philgeist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/img_0119-572x1024.png 572w, https:\/\/philgeist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/img_0119-279x500.png 279w, https:\/\/philgeist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/img_0119.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 572px) 100vw, 572px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n<div style=\"\n    background: linear-gradient(135deg, #0d0221 0%, #1a0b2e 100%);\n    color: #e0e0e0;\n    padding: 60px 40px;\n    border-radius: 8px;\n    font-family: 'Georgia', serif;\n    line-height: 1.8;\n    max-width: 600px;\n    margin: 40px auto;\n    border-left: 4px solid #ff0055;\n    box-shadow: 0 10px 30px rgba(0,0,0,0.5), 0 0 20px rgba(0, 255, 255, 0.1);\n    text-shadow: 1px 1px 2px rgba(0,0,0,0.8);\n\"><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 25px; font-size: 1.2rem;\">\n        I look up at the <span style=\"color: #ff3366; font-weight: bold; text-shadow: 0 0 10px rgba(255, 51, 102, 0.6);\">red exit sign<\/span>\u2014does it offer isolation or solitude?\n    <\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 25px; font-size: 1.2rem;\">\n        I let go of the <span style=\"color: #00f2ff; text-shadow: 0 0 8px rgba(0, 242, 255, 0.5);\">third story door<\/span> thinking\u2014I\u2019m free<br \/>\n        but <span style=\"color: #bc13fe;\">grief bursts back<\/span> into my chest.\n    <\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 30px; font-style: italic; font-size: 1.3rem; color: #ffffff; border-top: 1px solid rgba(255,255,255,0.1); padding-top: 20px;\">\n        Give me enough mercy for the middle<br \/>\n        to face our vacant stairwell.\n    <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"980\" height=\"980\" src=\"https:\/\/philgeist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/img_0121-980x980.jpg\" class=\"wp-image-7366\" srcset=\"https:\/\/philgeist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/img_0121-980x980.jpg 980w, https:\/\/philgeist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/img_0121-500x500.jpg 500w, https:\/\/philgeist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/img_0121-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/philgeist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/img_0121-100x100.jpg 100w, https:\/\/philgeist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/img_0121-140x140.jpg 140w, https:\/\/philgeist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/img_0121-350x350.jpg 350w, https:\/\/philgeist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/img_0121-1000x1000.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/philgeist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/img_0121-800x800.jpg 800w, https:\/\/philgeist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/img_0121.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 980px) 100vw, 980px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"980\" height=\"980\" src=\"https:\/\/philgeist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/img_0120-980x980.jpg\" class=\"wp-image-7367\" srcset=\"https:\/\/philgeist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/img_0120-980x980.jpg 980w, https:\/\/philgeist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/img_0120-500x500.jpg 500w, https:\/\/philgeist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/img_0120-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/philgeist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/img_0120-100x100.jpg 100w, https:\/\/philgeist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/img_0120-140x140.jpg 140w, https:\/\/philgeist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/img_0120-350x350.jpg 350w, https:\/\/philgeist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/img_0120-1000x1000.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/philgeist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/img_0120-800x800.jpg 800w, https:\/\/philgeist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/img_0120.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 980px) 100vw, 980px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I look up at the red exit sign\u2014does it offer isolation or solitude? I let go of the third story door thinking\u2014I\u2019m free but grief&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7362,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-7363","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-poetry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/philgeist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/philgeist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/philgeist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philgeist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philgeist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7363"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/philgeist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7368,"href":"https:\/\/philgeist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7363\/revisions\/7368"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philgeist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/philgeist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philgeist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philgeist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}