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The baby keeps us up all night and then sleeps all day. Keeps eating her way through cans in the pantry. Killing mice in the shed.  When she was born, I bled clean through.  The bed covered in thicket.  Never leave an infant in the woods. Even if she breathes a tiny heaving breath.  I left her beneath the willow tree and she came back squalling. Falling into ditches and crawling her way out. We went on for this like years til the child looked like any child.  Like any other life.  Play dates and fruit punch.  In the dark, we could pretend she was one of us, until she'd sigh or cough. A hundred drones escaping from between her lips.