“At least three years ago, my fathers God stopped being my God. His church stopped being my church. And yet, today, because I‘m a coward, I let myself be initiated into that church. I let my father baptize me in all three names of that God who isn‘t mine any more.”

Survivors should move on. Should wear white wedding dresses and carry peonies down the aisle and overcome, rather than dwell in a past that can‘t be altered. The word dismisses something I cannot, will not, dismiss.

“I was raised feral, and I mostly stayed that way.”

"But now things are different. Now all the mute objects in my life seem to tell my story, to stretch back in time, if I look closely enough."