The Deep

by Rivers Solomon

“We grow anxious and restless without you, my child. One can only go for so long without asking who am I? Where do I come from? What does all this mean? What is being? What came before me, and what might come after? Without answers, there is only a hole, a hole where a history should be that takes the shape of an endless longing. We are cavities.

Forgetting was not the same as healing.

Who might she have been had she not spent the better part of her life in the minds of others?

We are a song, and we are together. We remember.

she had spent most of her youth feeling abandoned by the wajinru, even when they most tried to show their love.

Her body protested most movement. She’d gotten used to a constant physical gnawing.

“You’re the one who’s leaving.” “No, Yetu. You’re the one who’s not coming with.”