older than the memory of fire. It is the original debt, the primeval wound, the first and final inheritance. But it is also new, always new because it is here each time a human being wakes and remembers what they have lost, what they have to lose, what they never wanted in the first place. It is the only ancestor that never dies, never passes on, never takes the form of a photograph or a story or a dream. It is the shadow in every love letter, the hesitation before every confession, the real reason behind every promise to do better tomorrow…

© KD.W.Heim