{"id":17,"date":"2026-11-03T05:06:58","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T05:06:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/philisharestory.org\/?p=17"},"modified":"2026-11-03T05:06:58","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T05:06:58","slug":"philsugar-graphite-skies-the-offing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philisharestory.org\/?p=17","title":{"rendered":"PhilSugar | Graphite Skies &#8211; The Offing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Photo by<br \/>\nPatrick Perkins<br \/>\non<br \/>\nUnsplash<br \/>\nhttps:\/\/theoffingmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Opal-graphite-skies-two.mp3<br \/>\nThere was snowfall for the first time<br \/>\nbut this was not snow<br \/>\nThere is a rumor\u2014running joke\u2014fable:<br \/>\nthe children here do not know<br \/>\nof snow for they so rarely<br \/>\nknow the rain<br \/>\nThis is not snow. It is ash<br \/>\nI cannot see the sun<br \/>\nfor weeks. Those with <a href=\"https:\/\/philippinessugar.com\/\">sugar daddy upfront payment<\/a> heat cannot <a href=\"https:\/\/philippinessugar.com\/\">sugar daddy allowance sa Philippines<\/a> turn it on<br \/>\nlungs and internal heating systems<br \/>\nfilled with soot<br \/>\nOctober should be the hottest month<br \/>\ninstead all I remember is being<br \/>\ncold: wearing jackets<br \/>\nin the house, cold<br \/>\nto be a silent-film <a href=\"https:\/\/philippinessugar.com\/\">paano umiwas sa sugar daddy scam<\/a> star under <a href=\"https:\/\/philippinessugar.com\/\">GCash processing fee scam<\/a> sepia skies<br \/>\nto be a vampire searching<br \/>\nfor a reflection on the concrete<br \/>\na proof you\u2019re still<br \/>\nliving when the <a href=\"https:\/\/philippinessugar.com\/\">popular sugar dating sites Philippines<\/a> world denied us a spotlight<br \/>\nwhen ambience is so calm it\u2019s oppressing<br \/>\nyou know it shouldn\u2019t be this quiet<br \/>\nat noon<br \/>\nwalking home from school canceled<br \/>\nfor an indeterminate number of<br \/>\nbreaths<br \/>\nAll I remember is<br \/>\nthe smell<br \/>\nEven after a<br \/>\nmask<br \/>\nscarf<br \/>\nbreath saved from unsaid words<br \/>\nand collar<br \/>\nYou can smell the haunting<br \/>\nnot-campfire<br \/>\nthe ghost of it<br \/>\nsticks around<br \/>\non your clothes<br \/>\non months<br \/>\non years<br \/>\nwho fade into just<br \/>\ntensed nerves at the sound of<br \/>\nhot winds and barbecues<br \/>\nheightened heartbeats for<br \/>\nevery fire after<br \/>\nwhen I feel that<br \/>\npoltergeist in the air<br \/>\nAll I remember is<br \/>\nbleak: eerie graphite<br \/>\nskies without a single<br \/>\nshadow on the ground<br \/>\nMultigenre writer<br \/>\nOpal Oliver Minor<br \/>\nis the author of The Poet\u2019s Take Out <a href=\"https:\/\/philippinessugar.com\/\">find sugar daddies Manila<\/a> (self-published, 2020). Their poetry and prose appears in<br \/>\nThe Offing<br \/>\n,<br \/>\nBackslash Lit<br \/>\n,<br \/>\nMixed Rice Zine<br \/>\n, UC Santa Cruz\u2019s Center for Monster Studies, and the Youth Speaks <a href=\"https:\/\/philippinessugar.com\/\">sugar dating compatibility<\/a> anthology, Between the Air and My Body. Minor resides in El Cerrito, California.<br \/>\nRELATED ARTICLES<br \/>\nYOUTH PORTFOLIO<br \/>\nchronic<br \/>\nBy MINERVA S.M. KAMRA<br \/>\nthe world is a<br \/>\nsymphony &amp; I only see birds,<br \/>\nFICTION<br \/>\nHot Spring Ghost Story<br \/>\nBy SALLY WEN MAO<br \/>\nMy father, Yongli, <a href=\"https:\/\/philippinessugar.com\/\">sugar dating account verification<\/a> told me this story, but I think he left some things out.<br \/>\nESSAY<br \/>\nNeversink<br \/>\nBy DENNIS JAMES SWEENEY<br \/>\nMy diagnosis allowed every doctor I saw to pretend they knew something about me. The more <a href=\"https:\/\/philippinessugar.com\/\">real sugar dating profiles<\/a> they knew, the less they listened to me&#8230;I <a href=\"https:\/\/philippinessugar.com\/\">best sugar dating platform Philippines<\/a> could never get across that my body was a whole thing.<br \/>\nNothing of him that doth fade,<br \/>\nBut doth suffer a sea-change<br \/>\nInto something rich and strange.<br \/>\nART<br \/>\nFICTION<br \/>\nPOETRY<br \/>\nESSAY | MEMOIR<br \/>\nHERE\/YOU ARE<br \/>\nWIT TEA<br \/>\nMICRO<br \/>\nENUMERATE<br \/>\nBACK OF THE ENVELOPE<br \/>\nINSIGHT<br \/>\nMASTHEAD<br \/>\nSUBMIT<br \/>\nSUPPORT<br \/>\nABOUT<br \/>\nFOLLOW US ON:<br \/>\nHOME<br \/>\nArt<br \/>\nComics<br \/>\nEssay<br \/>\nFiction<br \/>\nPoetry<br \/>\nKundiman 20th Anniversary Poetry Portfolio<br \/>\nYouth Portfolio<br \/>\nCross Genre<br \/>\nBack of the Envelope<br \/>\nEnumerate<br \/>\nInsight<br \/>\nMicro<br \/>\nTranslation<br \/>\nWit Tea<br \/>\nQ&amp;A<br \/>\nREFUSAL<br \/>\nExtras by Editors &amp; Contributors<br \/>\nThe Offing Podcast<br \/>\nAbout<br \/>\nEditorial Staff<br \/>\nBoard of Directors<br \/>\nAdvisory Board<br \/>\nContributors<br \/>\nIn Solidarity<br \/>\nVolunteer<br \/>\nContact<br \/>\nSupport<br \/>\nSubmit<br \/>\nSubmission Guidelines<\/p>\n<p>&lt;!&#8211; image: https:\/\/theoffing.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/patrick-perkins-DP4dLbZdybA-unsplash.jpg &#8211;&gt;<br \/>\n&lt;!&#8211; image: https:\/\/theoffing.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/themes\/the-offing\/inc\/thumbs.php?w=1000&amp;h=580&amp;zc=1&amp;src=\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/gauravdeep-singh-bansal-caC13DIDe9E-unsplash-1000&#215;580.jpeg &#8211;&gt;<br \/>\n&lt;!&#8211; image: https:\/\/theoffing.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/themes\/the-offing\/inc\/thumbs.php?w=1000&amp;h=580&amp;zc=1&amp;src=\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/4670702760_55d3463e8c_c.jpg &#8211;&gt;<br \/>\n&lt;!&#8211; image: https:\/\/theoffing.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/themes\/the-offing\/inc\/thumbs.php?w=1000&amp;h=580&amp;zc=1&amp;src=\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/andrew-neel-05nD5VT-714-unsplash-1000&#215;580.jpg &#8211;&gt;<br \/>\n&lt;!&#8211; image: https:\/\/theoffing.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/themes\/the-offing\/img\/footer_offing_logo.png &#8211;&gt;<br \/>\n&lt;!&#8211; image: https:\/\/theoffing.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/themes\/the-offing\/img\/ic_index_social_facebook-light@2x.png &#8211;&gt;<br \/>\n&lt;!&#8211; image: https:\/\/theoffing.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/themes\/the-offing\/img\/ic_index_social_twitter-light@2x.png &#8211;&gt;<br \/>\n&lt;!&#8211; image: https:\/\/theoffing.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/themes\/the-offing\/img\/ic_index_social_tumblr-light@2x.png &#8211;&gt;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Photo by Patrick Perkins on Unsplash https:\/\/theoffingmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Opal-graphite-skies-two.mp3 There was snowfall for the first time but this was not snow There is a rumor\u2014running joke\u2014fable: the children here do not know of snow for they so rarely know the rain This is not snow. It is ash I cannot see the sun for weeks. Those with<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"solace_meta_sidebar":"","solace_meta_container":"","solace_meta_enable_content_width":"","solace_meta_content_width":0,"solace_meta_title_alignment":"","solace_meta_author_avatar":"","solace_post_elements_order":"","solace_meta_disable_header":"","solace_meta_disable_footer":"","solace_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/philisharestory.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/philisharestory.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/philisharestory.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philisharestory.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philisharestory.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/philisharestory.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20,"href":"https:\/\/philisharestory.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17\/revisions\/20"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/philisharestory.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philisharestory.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philisharestory.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}