Will it hurt? Not at all? It’s her first time. The fear in her voice betrays it, but she’s brave. You’re such a brave little girl they tell her, pouring poison in. If we almost kill her she might live, they tell her mother, keeping hope alive.
It dies last, they say, hope, clinging to life, buying snake oil and shark cartilage, applying to phase one studies, searching for miracle cures. To live means to suffer, philosophers say. Until it’s them They do cry, when it’s them.
The form used is an Etheree, followed by a reverse Etheree, to give some sense of the ups and downs of hope in the wake of a personal tragedy.
