Be Not Far from Me

by Mindy McGinnis

The world is not tame. People forget that.

If you’re quiet in the woods long enough, you’ll hear something die. Then it’s quiet again. There’s no outrage about injustice, or even mourning. One animal’s death is another’s dinner; that’s just the way it is.

In nature it’s the male that does the mating dances, but we somehow got that all backward; it’s us girls that learn to do the preening and positioning.

When you can’t feel anything is when you need to worry.

I taught them that there’s nothing worse than humans. And while I learned it young myself, I didn’t ever want to have to be the one bearing the message.

When I finally get home there are reporters. The more industrious of the bunch have dug a little and found our address, something that makes me cringe. I’m not ashamed of the overgrown yard or the ripped trampoline, the cinder-block steps and the rusted spots in the metal siding. Maybe once I would’ve been, but not after I found out what it’s like to go without it.

the world is not tame and neither are people, or how I feel about them.