+Please, my love, come home unharmed. +It's been almost a month since I +found you injured, limping, on a farm +half-familiar, glowing hearth. +We've been here before- or, at least, I have, +wandering in sprawling fields +trying to find homebound path. + +Because isn't that +what this is all about? +Trying to find the way back home +despite all those who've declared +themselves roadblocks, obstacles. +Each of us condemned to roam, +sometimes aimless, usually on our own, +no one to ask us how we fare. + +The bloodlust of my youth has faded away. +I've grown sick of conflict, of battles, of war. +How can anyone think cold-blooded murder holds glamour? +I'm sick as an invalid +two steps in the grave +of every moment worrying if you're okay. + +"If there was a path +out of this heartbreak +without suffering any pain, +believe me, +Lethe, +I'd take it in a single breath." + +I'd rather die +than live a thousand lives +safe but absent from your light. +But there's nothing I can do +as you ascend the campus clock tower +with staff in hand, +ready and prepared to make a last stand. +"I need you to know I feel the same. +Truth be told, I always have. +I've got a bad limp, but if I get my way, +you won't have to wait +much longer." ++ ]]> +
-"What's an operating system?" -Whether they were being serious, I could never tell, -but the question always hung over me like death's bell. - -And although camp is now disbanded and dead, -still rings in a disused hall in my head -the words penned on whiteboard in striking red: - -while all other girls were so much praise shot -about their skills, their quests, their help, -only written for me: "I guess she smiles a lot." - -And when I complained that I had put in -more effort but barely anything received, -Mom marched me to apologize -even though in my eyes -I had committed no crime. - -Just be happy with what you've got, -with the crumbs we've thrown your way; -never demand the more you're due, -just smile and bear the pain. - -Just smile and bear the pain -of being a prototype, forging the way -to brothers to be done right, to be done at all, -listened to, heard, given right to complain, -and you yourself cast aside -to either be shown up or prepared to die. - -I've failed the test on three separate times, -so I know for sure I can't legally drive. -If I need to get somewhere, either I catch a ride, -call a bus, or gather my breath -and bike. -But you're driving me to death. -You're running me raw. -Soon, I think, there'll be nothing at all. -Will you love me then, Mother, with Cheshire smile? -A lot of what's praised -and naught else remains.]]>
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