Drabble for the "lies we tell ourselves" challenge.

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There's nothing you can do.

The starving child on the television. The front-page photograph of the father in agony, clutching his dead son. The woman with dull eyes like holes poked into her head, standing before a pile of skulls and femurs. The bombs, the guns, the sirens, the broken glass.

You can't expect to fix these problems.

The man lying on the sidewalk next to an empty cup, slat-ribbed dog panting beside him. The teenager riding the bus, baby on her lap. The toddler with a windbreaker and no mitts.

It won't make a difference anyways. Just don't look.

(loving Dani fiercely)

wrod. I'm getting no love from my project today and KFKD is telling me it's because I'm boring and helpless and don't know anything and maybe have stupid hair.I wrote a whole page on how I hate myself, though. Too bad grunge is dead.

I wrote a whole page on how I hate myself, though. Too bad grunge is dead.

As long as one true believer clutches a "Nevermind" CD in their unclensed hands, grunge will live forever...

As long as one true believer clutches a "Nevermind" CD in their unclensed hands, grunge will live forever...

oooooooooooh, Nirvana!

I could've been a big star at that.

Dani's drabble is amazing.

Dani's drabble left me speechless all day. I read it this morning, and couldn't comment for all the stuff it brought up. I'm still not articulate about it.

Thank you.

I'm Not Scared

I am not scared I am not scared not not not.

It's just more words. I've heard them, or different flavours of them, so many damned times before: polio pneumonia scarlet fever diptheria polyps osteoporosis dysplasia abnormality HPV stage one and I'm not scared I made it to the half-century and they're just more words.

I'm not scared. It's just another test. It's just another doctor, another invasion, another poke another prod another doctor making a mistake which doesn't scare me doesn't scare me or another doctor not making a mistake, in which case this is terminal.

I'm not scared.

It's not a big deal. He's done it before, and it wasn't a big deal then. Nothing's changed now, not really. He's a little more practiced now, but that's to be expected. He's done it more often. Practiced isn't the right word. Acclimatized is a better way to put it. It's not because he's trying, not because he's really thinking about it. Because that would mean it's worth thinking about.

And it's not. It's not a big deal at all.

He wipes his clammy hands against his jeans and inhales deeply. He should be hearing the footsteps any time now.