We the Animals

by Justin Torres

We knew there was something on the other side of pain, on the other side of the sting.

We saw that it must hurt her, too, to love him.

“But now I know,” he said, “God’s scattered all the clean among the dirty. You and me and Joel, we’re nothing more than a fistful of seed that God tossed into the mud and horseshit. We’re on our own.”