The Deep

by Rivers Solomon

She had no wish to transform trauma to performance, to parade what she’d come to think of as her own tragedies for entertainment.

“What is belonging?” we ask. She says, “Where loneliness ends.”

“I would sooner die than let you suffer this alone. You begged me to understand, and I never did. I never could. Now I know, my child. I know, and I will not see you bear it without your amaba, without your kindred.”