What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours

by Helen Oyeyemi

It was the usual struggle between one who loves by accepting burdens and one who loves by refusing to be one.

he’d said he liked the connections he could see her making in her mind, and the way that she tried to tend them so that they thrived. Nobody had ever said anything like that to her before. Usually it was “Aren’t you overthinking things, Day?” But a gardener growing thoughts—she liked that.

With boys there was a fundamental assumption that they had a right to be there—not always, but more often than not. With girls, Why her? came up so quickly.

According to Dornička, cities are fueled by the listless agony of workers providing services to other workers who barely acknowledge those services.

“A real writer has to be able to write about the body. They have to. It’s where we live.”