I Who Have Never Known Men

by Jacqueline Harpman

But human beings need to speak, otherwise they lose their humanity, as I’ve realised these past few years.

I’d been their clock: watching me, the women watched their own time tick by. Maybe that was why they didn’t like me, perhaps the mere fact of my existence made them cry.

It is impossible to predict what might happen in a world where you don’t know the rules.