Children were vehicles for passing things along. These things could be kingdoms, rich wedding gifts, stories, grudges, blood feuds. Through children, alliances were forged; through children, wrongs were avenged. To have a child was to set loose a force in the world.

“I planned my death carefully, unlike my life, which meandered along from one th…”

“Reenie never went in much for God. There was mutual respect, and if you were in…”

“Axiom: you are a sea. Your eye-lids curve over chaosMy handswhere they touch yo…”

“A puff of air—whuff!—hits his ears, blows out the candle. He can't be bothered …”