When I was a graduate student chasing a fantasy, it had not occurred to me that I was seeking freedom inside the hold.
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When I was a graduate student chasing a fantasy, it had not occurred to me that I was seeking freedom inside the hold.

Freedom, she asks: What is it?
It strikes me that to miss or be missing, in my brother’s case, requires a part-of-speech modification, too—one that could perhaps help me, at least, understand his particular condition, meaning the Condition of Bruce as it intersects with the subjugated identities we know are related, race and gender. To be missing, as a noun, would be the designation itself, like a black, the racial category without the noun person. A failed sight. A passed by without touching. A failed inclusion. An unattended. A missing.