Can You Feel This?

by Julie Orringer

Mother: what you vowed never to be. Never to give yourself the chance to do what she did to you.

You’d never worn your trauma like a badge. It was something you carried alone.

THIS! I wanna tattoo this.

His fingers close around your thumb. A reflex, but you take it to mean what you want it to. Clever biology, deceiving you with this small and powerful grip.