I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself

by Marisa Crane

“This isn’t where my activism exactly thrives,” I say. “What activism?” laughs Bear. “My, well, my being alive activism.”

She’s going to love you more than any one person ought to love another. She will make you crazy. We will let her.”

“Velcro, Velcro,” he says. I can hear him smiling into the phone. “You have unstuck yourself.”

True or False (½ point each): 1. Not deciding is deciding, too. _____ 2. You can feel the tectonic plates of your world shifting beneath you. _____ 3. Love is not a finite thing. _____ 4. Your story was never just your story. _____ 5. Pleasure can exist on its own, without the intrusion of shame. _____ 6. You were right: remembering is a courageous act. _____ 7. It’s time to tip the scales. _____ 8. It is possible for an answer to be both true and false at once. _____