Is it an aberration that sacrifice

and pain are better escorts to destiny

than happiness?

Is it risqué to bottle toxicity-fermenting it to sweet wine?

I gladly join the avant-garde …turning social norms on their heads

Our consensus is this:

⁃that carrying mountains strengthens legs

-that pain is fuel for greatness

-that exile is opportunity perfected

and that the trauma of being buried is really the process of being planted

©Vivian Zems

Real Toads