We Could Be Rats

by Emily R. Austin

I just wanted to be happy, but sometimes your own happiness comes at the expense of other people’s, doesn’t it? It’s hard to balance being both happy and considerate.

I’m not sure there is a way to be alive without upsetting people. We’re all in this web together, aren’t we? Everything we do tangles everybody else together.

Every word means more when there are fewer of them. Brevity is the soul of wit, or whatever.

I don’t want to leave you in the woods, Sigrid. I don’t want your hair to be used in bird nests or for your face to fade in the sun. I want you to wake up and eat a hot dog at a fair.

I was sobbing in a way I only can in the privacy of a car alone at night.