Child of the Universe

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“Fuck!”

I ran outside in my socks.

“I can’t take it anymore!” she screamed, hurling her phone at the pavement, then punching a telephone pole. 

“Excuse me, Ma’am. Can I help you?”

“I don’t know. Can you?”

She screamed about trees dying, gun violence, homelessness, her landlord, her mother… “I’m a worthless piece of shit.”

“You’re not.”

“What would you know about rejection?”

“I’m HIV-positive.” 

She stopped screaming. I quoted Desiderata: 

“You are a child of the universe

no less than the trees and the stars;

you have a right to be here.”

Then we held each other and wept.