Slayer

when she was still alive, my mother loved to read me the bible before bed. she'd open the worn book, flip to the creased pages, and tell me tales of adam and eve, cain and able. she told me that there was someone 'up there', watching over me, someone who created the very earth i lived on. she wove tails of the demons burning in hell, and the angels living at the paradise in the sky called heaven.

i'd always looked at her skeptically. some all knowing being, who created the earth? absolute bull. the earth was created when gravity pulled swirling gas and dust in to become the third planet from the sun. and heaven and hell? when we died, we died. that was it. i made sure my opinions were known, but my mom would always scrunch up her nose and tuck the bible back into the giant purse she carried with her everywhere, even if she was only going to say goodnight to her only child.

when i asked her why she believed in something so obviously transparent, something that could be picked apart with science and theory, she only shrugged and said, "having something to believe in is better than believing that you are alone in the world."

i still don't believe in god. but now i damn well believe in demons.

welcome to the end of the world. try not to die too fast.

love, (not really)
akiko