IyraEMM

mother with whistle, button and mace drops her weapons to the hospital floor and screams. father rejoices - a princess! i'll teach her everything. mother still screams. father, laughing - i pity the boy who asks for her hand. mother holds baby and shrieks. father's skin crawls - why aren't you happy? mother screams. mother howls. mother, inconsolable (everyone dies but girls are always born dead)

There is nothing quite like the quiet waters that run down the sturdy stone of my house. I am warm and alive, there's an orb buzzing quietly on my palm. I pass it to the one next to me, he tosses it to the one behind, she laughs and slaps it onto the wall. It drips and drops to the floor, and slides back up into another's hand. There's whistle and chatter, soap bubbles and meat sizzling in the oily heat. The king and queen in all their contentment peer from a frame (I glance at their eyes and forget to linger longer at the life they gave - how they must have giggled as lovers a dusty lifetime ago) Noise. Freedom. Our daily bread. We slu