Breasts and Eggs

by Mieko Kawakami

I recognize that luck, effort, and ability are often indistinguishable.

How many more times in my life would I sit back like this and find myself transfixed by the blue of the evening? Is this what it means to live and die alone? That you’ll always be in the same place, no matter where you are?

and that human beings should not be treated as a means for reproduction.