A Meal To Prove You Exist

Pour some olive oil in the pan.
And chopped garlic and onions.
And the turmeric – the one her parents gifted you once they got back from Greece.
And the cayenne pepper she never allowed you to use.
Pour four peeled tomatoes – fresh would be better but canned can be good too.
And the last strand of hair you just found by the bathtub.
Let the broth boil for a bit.
Then go fetch the sock, the last sock she’d forgotten when you split.
Put it in the sauce with some sausage and some heart of palm.

Prepare the rice. Clean it in bowls of water until the starch is gone – as gone as her – and the water
gets clearer.
Put the rice in the cooker. Remember it’s one and a half the volume of rice in water.
As the rougail boils, and the rice is cooking, you can go sock diving.

And here’s the last part – the crazy part. Go pick up the cat. The red-haired devil she did not care for
in her retreat.
You could slit its furry throat over the boiling pot is all I’m saying.
But be wary. Once you’ve killed the damn beast, who’ll ever know you exist?

While he's French and lives south of Paris, Basile Lebret writes in English. Since it first sprouted in 2022, his work has now spread to over twenty publications in the US, the UK, France or Canada. The most recent include ROF Publishing's Season's Grievings, Witch House 5, God's Cruel Joke and Squirm Books' Skin Deep. Soon in the Horror Zine Spring 2026 Issue. His first collection Welcome to Valenton! is set to release this year. Find him on any network: @evoripclaw