I dream of a world better than this, where all people are free to follow the footsteps that desire leaves for them, but it is difficult to imagine such things clearly with a knife pressed to my throat. In that heartbeat I am only thinking of the this moment, never the next. I think of the blood in my veins and the breath in my mouth. I think of the snarling faces behind the glittering edge of steel pressed into my flesh. I cannot hold a greater idea in my head for it is overwhelmed by animalistic instinct, to live a moment longer. I am reduced to the savagery that sustains us here, in this cycle of scrambling violence, unable to catch my breath long enough to break us free.
Paddy Dobson
24th April 2023