The Impossible Girl

by Lydia Kang

The widest land Doom takes to part us, leaves thy heart in mine With pulses that beat double. —“Sonnet VI,” 1850, Elizabeth Barrett Browning

“‘Alle Dinge sind Gift und nichts ist ohne Gift; allein die Dosis machts, dass ein Ding kein Gift sei.’ It’s the only German I know.” “Ah,” Dr. Blackwell said. “‘All things are poison and nothing is without poison. Only the dose makes a thing not to be poison.’”