My Children Came Back to the Hospital Pretending to Care but My Bed Was Already Empty

as though the numeral itself were the insult, and in a sense it was, because it was the precise minimum required to make the document unchallengeable. It said: we know you are here. We have not forgotten you. We have simply decided.

Diego said it was insane.

I told him it was a consequence.

He said I could not do this to them.

I told him they had already continue reading …