Freshwater

by Akwaeke Emezi

When you name something, it comes into existence—did you know that? There is strength there, bone-white power injected in a rush, like a trembling drug.

I refuse to believe that I looked anything like her—it must have been the humans who just couldn’t tell the difference.

The world in my head has been far more real than the one outside—maybe that’s the exact definition of madness, come to think of it.

I stop being afraid of relocations and I can move wherever I want because I know that I will be loved constantly across all space. And even if it fades with them, it will bloom again. We are all conduits. It moves through us freely.

Understand this if you understand nothing: it is a powerful thing to be seen.