Literary Orphans

On Psycho-pharmaceuticals
by Erika D. Price

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Don’t get Pandora’s intentions twisted: she didn’t open the box and unleash the Evils upon the world because of folly. In the original myth, she was born inside the box with disease, war, desire, famine, tempests, earthquakes, mass extinctions, organ ruptures, nightmares, sorrow, and all the other horrors.

She was trapped inside, for woman was a horror like all the rest, but after a millenia she escaped and only one other Evil— the worst— clambered out after her and unleashed itself upon the waiting proto-world.

It was sensible, not foolish, then, for Pandora to lift the latch and let the rest out. She waved all the waiting horrors away and welcomed them out of the box.

“Pollute the skies, churn the tides, sicken the blood, starve the mules, burst the pores, lead the arrows, darken the spirits!” Pandora cried as they flew off, one-by-one.

“My friends, do your damn things! Even you, Hope, last (and second-worst) of the Evils, go and trick the minds of humanity; Make them believe they can live and thrive in this tumultuous mess!”

Pandora watched them fly out and color the nothingness that had once been around her, and she smiled. She knew it was worth it, you see, to have other, tangible horrors out in the world, to drown out the deleterious, eternal roar of the first and greatest escaped Evil: boredom.

 

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Erika D. Price is a social psychologist, writer, and weirdass lady living in Chicago, Illinois. Her work has been featured in Full of Crow, Literary Orphans, Red Fez, and others, as well as in shows including The Paper Machete, Essay Fiesta, and Liar’s League NYC. She writes at erikadprice.tumblr.com

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–Art by Diana Cretu

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