Waif

by Samantha Kolesnik

I call it “The Time Before Men,” a version of myself I can never get back. I guess, you could say, some might also call it Innocence.

The older I became, the more convinced I was that no one escaped this earth unscathed by human suffering.

What made a man? Hatred for women, perhaps.

I wondered at how any deity could create something so stunning and plop it here where all men would do was try to ruin it.

Family was chosen. The rest could go to Hell.