I Who Have Never Known Men

by Jacqueline Harpman

And now, racked with sobs, I was forced to acknowledge too late, much too late, that I too had loved, that I was capable of suffering and that I was human after all.

If the only thing that differentiates us from animals is the fact that we hide to defecate, then being human rests on very little, I thought.

I thought it was unfair, and then I understood that, alone and terrified, anger was my only weapon against the horror.

‘They never touch us.’ ‘At one time they did, there were wounds that were very slow to heal. We don’t know why they stopped. There’s no point rebelling. We must just wait until we die.’

We had our own time, which had nothing in common with that of those who kept us locked up; we’d rediscovered the quality of being human.

Had I become so rich that I could neglect some of my possessions?