Delicate Condition

by Danielle Valentine

she explained about eggs and sperm, and what happens when a man and a woman love each other very much. It took me decades to understand that this too was a fairy tale.

If you leave your trash outside overnight, you don’t blame the bear who comes by and rips it open, drawn by the smell. You blame yourself.

It was wrong that the world should still look this beautiful. But the grounds were pristine, as untouched as if they existed inside a snow globe. The universe didn’t care.

Sometimes being alive hurt like hell.

But who said motherhood was fair? Nobody, that’s who.

I found myself thinking that I didn’t know how women ever forgave their children for this. For ripping their bodies apart, destroying them.