the_books_they_took_away raze one was something satirical about cats, bought from the it store at the devonshire mall, where the walls were lined with novelty items and gag gifts. one was a biography of an american actor. supposed references to sex sank them both before i could make it past the front cover. then there was a beautiful edition of "the hobbit". i think i got a few pages into that one before my mother ripped it out of my hands and said, "you don't need to be reading about a stupid old cave." which was one hell of a reductive take on a story she hadn't even read herself. my fifth-grade teacher went to bat for me. she told my mother and stepfather i was reading at a high_school level. she said i should be allowed to immerse myself in whatever i could get my hands on. it did me no good. then there were all the hundreds of things that were thrown in the garbage. magazines. encyclopedias. exquisite tombs with hard and soft spines. my entire personal library disposed of because i couldn't keep it organized. the truth was much simpler than any of the excuses i was given. the woman who never wanted me and the man she settled for when no one else would have her were determined to drain the joy from my life. they couldn't stand to see something so small with a smile on its face. all these years later, they're just as miserable as they ever were, and all they have to lean on is the sagging citadel of their hate. i am cracked and crumbling and so much less than i thought i'd be by now. but there's a world of red words winding through me. and they can't do a thing to dull it. 260218 what's it to you? who go blather from