proclaim them aloud is the central dialectic of psychological trauma.
- Judith Herman -
The angel lay with her cheek to the ground, struggling to catch her breath. As if in a dream, people moved through the landscape that surrounded her. They walked around her, stepped over her, their voices and movement hammering like stones against her consciousness. The toe of a boot clipped her hip. Someone called her a whore. She closed her eyes against their assaults. Night fell. The streets drew into themselves, hush with the dimness of solitude. The angel opened her eyes, pushed her body away from the pull of gravity. She reached out, clawed for the architecture of substance, and pulled herself to her feet. Leaning against an open doorway for support she scanned the avenue. A tree-lined park was across the street. The wind stirred the leaves into voices that whispered her name. She veered toward them, staggering as if drunk in the darkness.
She knew what she had to do.
