Fallout

We had never seen destruction on that level before
Sure, people talked about it on the news,
but we all thought it was nothing;
just idle threats

When I got home I immediately checked on Auntie Anya and cousin Freya.
They were my family,
my home.

Freya was like her mother
my aunt.
Very quiet and reserved.
Her inner world was like nothing else.
Like her mother, she was an accomplished artist.
But her soul had a boldness
a sort of strength, that her mother’s never had.

So it made sense that she would get into activism
put words to the sense of injustice that she felt
deep within herself.

Always getting into trouble,
spray painting shit on walls,
it put her at odds with Uncle Stevie.

He didn’t want her getting into trouble
yet that’s where she always went
Anya wanted her safe
because Freya was ill;
she had Lupus.

Lupus was an autoimmune disorder
or at least that’s what Auntie Anya told me.
It’s when your immune system fucks up
and attacks your own body

It fucking sucked.
Freya had bouts of flares
Seizures from “CNS” Lupus
at one point they said
she wouldn’t live to be 20

So she fought back
and the only way she knew to fight back
was to fight against society
the very thing keeping her alive