He wanted to sink you in steaming water, and put into your ashen mouth a slice of thick bread with roe shining on it like rubies. He wanted to sink you in steaming water, and brush your hair, and make you well. But he could not. You were too far gone. So instead he and I held you between us and I fed you, I fed you like a chick. I chewed up stars and sunlight and the rind of the moon and vomited them back into you, the most wholesome food we have known since the youth of the world.
Deathless, Catherynne M. Valente