Gendercide … should it be normalized??

What snaps in that body/mind/spirit when they are "broken in"?

Her daughter has spells. She faints and is dizzy and can't finish her words she meant to say. She went to the priest and paid him for charms that she might wear them, but it made her worse, somehow.

That Sunday Lubov had felt the touch of God so gently, but firmly, that she knew where to go when her world crumbled.

The breakfast liter of vodka no longer drowns her realities, but it does remove feeling from her extremities. It's hard to make her now spindly legs walk her for the frequent runs to the bathroom, and her hand shakes between cigarettes. But she's all there, hanging on every word.

Fikret’s good natured laugh dies as she talks about the river that goes past their village. It’s deep and cold, and moves with great currents. Dark and menacing, it is never entered upon freewill even in the cooking heat of summer.

And with the spit, Darya finally realized why. They weren’t wanted for whom they were created to be, and from that moment, they’ve striven for an antithesis.

I almost step on a tattered orange cat. It's focus is so intent on possible delectibles falling from the third balcony up that it doesn't see me. His concentration breaks mine. I let the past go and follow the hopeful cat's gaze

Sabeen's penciled eyebrows raise up into her curly, dark hair. "They're really good? Did you hear that, girls? I did good on my first try!

From her childhood she had to pay prices that shamed her to gain existence. She knew nothing else. The mist of stupor was all she had to comfort her. Yet, now, the bottle held less allure. There were people who liked her.

No beggar this. Simply hard working, now bent and twisted by the years, burdened perhaps with loads that I can't see.

In the early morning it's the trucks, collecting the empty kegs, hundreds of them, and replacing them with a fresh batch. Monotonous and regular, like clockwork.

The weather's gone cold. Without wood to heat her rented room, the walls feel clammy. But the cough has weakened her and she can't face the four flights down to get wood. Besides, it costs to buy wood. It's easier to reach for the vodka

She's been told she is stupid because she's left handed. I prove this to be a myth by being a lefty myself. She's sure she can't learn because she was thrown out of school for being stupid, but she so desperately wants to prove herself wrong.

Finally, she took courage to ask….

Tadele loves to come and fix stew and injera for the East Africa church which meets on the sixth floor.