Wild Dark Shore

by Charlotte McConaghy

But the dandelion—this single flower that has given nourishment to countless other living creatures—is considered a weed.

There is unfathomable pressure on women to have babies—it is our only purpose—and when we don’t, we baffle people.

“Maybe we will drown or burn or starve one day, but until then we get to choose if we’ll add to that destruction or if we will care for each other.”

“Wombats have a thing they do in fires. They take their families underground, into their burrows. They have tunnels under the earth, and they go down there to take shelter, but they don’t just take their families, they also take other animals down there. They save everyone they can. And then the mum and dad wombats stick their bums up into the entrances of the burrows to block the fire and the ash from coming down. And their bums get burned, and sometimes they die, but they protect the others.”