a_city_named_nobi raze i cannot conjure its contours and landmarks from memory, having never been there before. you tell me they're hiring people like me who are almost too exhausted to think straight and paying them to do next_to_nothing all day. it's a nineteen-hour drive from here. a man who's lived there all his life tells me i could be a bigger fish in a smaller pond. i just don't know. bad as it's been to me, this place is still home. in a living room that's not my own, i sing a secondhand song of desperation and wait for the chorus to clear its throat so i can leave my paw prints like pinpricks at the edges of its eyes. it takes me in its arms and rocks me to sleep with the softness of surprise. no questions asked. no shadow thrown. i'll stay a tadpole until i die if it means not having to walk away from this. 250731 what's it to you? who go blather from