By Michelle Dove

Brought to you by the Guernica/PEN Flash Series

When the person I wish to see most doesn’t show, apathy must set in before anything can replace it. When I feel a human-sized void, is it instinctual that I fill it with a human? Inside jokes thwart explanation. The argument weighing going to the doctor and riding out discomfort is erratic. If eating is instinctual for survival, why do I spend so much time deciding what to cook? When what’s foreign compels creation, the end doesn’t feel any less personal. What I want from my interactions is not agreement. But show me true camaraderie that doesn’t take on a language all its own.