Memorable Stuff I Read This Week

I gotta tell
the truth—sometimes,
people are not born, some of us

fall into this world

— Hílda Davis / “Pilate ponders where she belongs”

The thing that makes life interesting is that it ends. The thing that makes love worthwhile is that it’s all we’ve got.

— Rumaan Alam / Entitlement

I can’t wait to take you home and rob you
Break your chaste and taste it with masa
To get a piece of your galore
Show up out of the woods at like 1000 AM…

— Zan de Parry / “Barn Door”

People, it turned out, were mostly fine with being victimized in small doses. In fact, they seemed to expect a certain amount of deception, allowed for a tolerable margin of manipulation in their relationships.

— Emma Cline / The Guest

You send a video: lizards rushing into limestone
which remind you of being a kid in Florida.  

In Florida we memorized sonnets
while leaping around green anoles. 

— Kaveh Akbar / “Love Poem with Tumor and Petrified Dog”

… your mother, your uncle, none of you get that you’re living on credit accrued at other people’s expense, at the expense of the kind of people who still aren’t allowed past your front hall…

— Anton Chekhov / The Cherry Orchard

I’m not sure
of much, except it’s hard to say
what’s true. We suspect the higher-ups

have hidden motives for telling us
so. The feds, my parents, their Catholic
god, AI, this sense, despite all I know
of marrow, of wind in my bones.

— Jen DeGregorio / “No Isms Except Neologism”

What I’m Listening To:

There is no west, the sun doesn’t rise
No, the sun never rests
As the Earth leans into its forever pirouette

— U.S. Girls / “Pay Streak”