Mother

Sometimes I can't forgive you.

For leaving me with these people, for releasing me to their wretched, tender care.

I would have been better off with you;

You should have taken me with you.

I lost all the love I had when you died,

Both within me and within the world for me.

- mortaki, 2025 (Series #1)

the after people

they'll never understand the people they were to me;

the way they seemed to me;

the ways they were wretched to me.

in their eyes, they are innocent.

i had good food and nice clothes and a roof to sleep under.

what more could i need?

and sure enough, i was alive.

they kept me alive.

what more could i possibly need but to be alive?

- mortaki, 2025 (Series #1)

tender loving care

I was drowning,

And rather than pull me out of the water

Or put me out of my misery,

They gave me just enough air to stay alive and told me to be grateful.

They call that waterboarding elsewhere.

They call that torture.

- mortaki, 2025 (Series #1)

eGG yOLK

I feel like a fragile eggshell of a person.

Like my cool, unbothered, unblemished outside should not be able to contain my nauseating, volatile insides.

Like perhaps I should crack and spill my egg yolk brains to the floor.

- mortaki, 2025