Book of the Little Axe

by Lauren Francis-Sharma

choosing to live is not the same as being scared to die.

“Those who eat their own death will eat another’s life.”

“We are never again of one soil.” Papá reached for the torch and kneaded his hands above the flames. “So we find ways to stretch the world so there’s room for us.”

Thompson went between awe and disdain of Indian ways. In this he wasnt no different from all the other men I knowed. Writin in his lil diary bout how different their beliefs and customs and dress was aint come without judgment. And it aint come without him bein frightened that his own way of lookin at the world might could be undone by knowin theirs.

But to say that a girl’s words mattered was far easier than to examine why they did not.

Another era would have made no difference, for it seemed no mother in the span of humanity could accept responsibility for inflicting harm on her child when she believed her intent was honorable.

“Spoiled” is what men called girls whose disobediences they secretly enjoyed.