Red Clocks

by Leni Zumas

“Let’s spend the taxpayers’ money to criminalize vulnerable women, shall we?” said Ro/Miss in class, and somebody said, “But if they’re breaking the law, they are criminals,” and Ro/Miss said, “Laws aren’t natural phenomena. They have particular and often horrific histories. Ever heard of the Nuremberg Laws? Ever heard of Jim Crow?”

She can’t decide what to call this feeling. It isn’t sadness. More like a wilting. A deflation. The skin of a balloon after all the air except a breath or two has seeped out. Zero weeks, zero days.

How much of her ferocious longing is cellular instinct, and how much is socially installed? Whose urges is she listening to? Her life, like anyone’s, could go a way she never wanted, never planned, and turn out marvelous.

By walking, she tells her students, is how you make the road.