Bitten

Bleeding

Always healing

Nails

And nail beds

All uneven

Under nails

Skin, blood, spit

The ritual, the survival, the instinct

Smaller hands learning to move things

Grabbing, pushing, pulling

Control, order, undoing

There must be something that needs fixing, correcting, dissecting

Some small, quick satisfaction these two hands can bring

I must check

I must check

If I don’t check how can ...

“It’s true, whether you believe me or not, it’s true.” Minerva said this in a singsongy voice. She gave a challenging raise of her eyebrow, meant to be playful, nonchalant. And accompanied it with a knowing, almost teasing smile, meant to be playful as well but seeming to say “I know better than you” in a mocking tone.

There was so much to read on her face and only so many ways to read it. Pride...

She could never quite figure out how she felt about her.

Did she like her?

Did she just barely mildly stand her?

There was no room for indifference.

She loved her son too much for that.

But she did not know what to make of her careful smiles and thoughtful tone.

As if a tone could think.

As if a smile could spread itself with caution and calculation.

As if she were asleep in there.

Unawar...

It must have been a man who said don’t cry over spilled milk

A father

Or a brother

Or a son

Of a breastfeeding mother

Because what else am I supposed to do with this rage

The last thing I needed

On top of everything else

I finally got four hours of sleep

And I’m drenched

And the bed is drenched

And it’s dripping

Leaking

Spilling from my breasts

Down my stomach

Down my thighs

...

“I can’t believe you really found it!” Kyris wore a stupidly huge grin on her face as she brought the rock piece just a bit too close to it.

“Pfft, believe it.” Papa Miloq gave a bashful, proud smile and scratched the back of his neck with his tail.“You’re the one who told me I would.”

Kyris grinned, inspecting the piece. “I did do that, didn’t I?”

Miloq gave his usual what-am-I-going-to-do-wi...

CW: SA

I stumble and I fumble and finally I tumble.

As I quickly try to gather everything before it crumbles.

Maybe I gave the wrong impression? Maybe I stammered, scrambled, mumbled…

After all how can I trust a mind that’s just so very jumbled?

Let’s have some confidence here; it’s okay, let’s not be humble.

You said no.

He heard… go?

Go…?

No…

I don’t think so…

There must be so...

CW: Childhood Sexual Abuse

It was a series of folds and turns.

A series of folds and turns and it was… a boat.

A boat, a lemonade, and a sun that burns.

A sun that burns and a hum from the Earth’s very throat.

That’s to say it was a Tuesday;

the day both Ami and Api worked.

Tuesdays were perfect in that way,

no one to be bothered or worried or irked.

Soursweet citrus perfection,

a shade jus...

“Careful!” Mae whisper-hissed as she held a dangling Basil by a ratty old hoodie.

Basil could hear Mae’s angry facial expression, she was not just upset but insulted. Why, Basil, why? Why couldn’t you just listen?

Scenes flashed back and forth in Basil’s mind, an angry Mae, the bottom of a cliff. Back and forth, back and forth, as if his future was still undecided… until finally Mae placed an e...