THIS GENTLE MURMUR

In the context of a society where abortion has slowly become a political and religious platform, This Gentle Murmur chooses to address the subject as a complex and more nuanced choice than the binary discourses we've become accustomed to.

The reasons for abortion are infinitely varied and unique. There are as many good reasons for having an abortion as there are for not having one. Yet the debate has been so polarized that it has become difficult to express ambivalent feelings in the social sphere without fear of being criticized by both opponents and supporters of abortion rights. Similar issues can arise within couples, where, faced with these same ambiguities, antagonistic narratives and silences crystallize. Abortion is not just a women's matter. Many men are afflicted by the loss or medical procedures, despite the fact that this experience is not embodied in their very bodies. The complexity of the interconnectedness, in both the living and the non-living, is thus revealed beyond identities, space and time.

The test is positive.

Two pink lines side by side. Contentment caressing affliction.

Enchantment imagining life within. Disenchantment in imagining life ahead.

 I make a choice.

The intervention is absolutely banal.

A simple medical procedure on a Wednesday morning.

Its underlying undertow, however, is something else.

Once the chimera is embedded in me, in my organs, it multiplies indefinitely.

Cell after cell. Indefinitely.

In my organs. My brain.

Like a mythological creature,

lion, goat, snake

I carry within me the DNA of this non-living being and half the genetic code of its genitor.

This genetic imprint goes by the scientific name of chimera cell.

Lion, goat, snake

multiplying in me.

This phenomenon is particularly common after an abortion.