Wasn't like this...

Photographer Unknown

The end of time wasn’t like this the last go around,
wasn't lake or gray morning, an apartment I didn’t know,

rumpled sheets, a glass half full of water,
the floor above creaking with the weight of

someone who wears shoes even at home—

No one knows how the mind works.

How are you supposed to remember where you live
in a world contracted to expire—



Rain pouring along the pane.
You promised to respond and still there’s nothing—

- Kazim Ali

Speech

Susan & her 5d

“What I mean is, each act of speech stands on the belief that someone will hear.”
- White Is For Witching, Helen Oyeyemi

Started Listening

Felicity Green Photography

“As he drove, Abe recalled that his grandfather always told him that any man who took the time to listen would be amazed at all he could discover without even trying. A truly observant individual could lie down beside the river and hear where the fish were swimming; why, the trout would practically give directions to any man who was willing to study them. And because his grandfather was the best fisherman in town, and had always given out good advice, Abe started listening then and there. He thought about the dark mark on the boy’s forehead, a bruise the color of wild iris, and he decided that for once in his life he’d pay attention. He’d take note of what this drowned boy had to say.”
- The River King, Alice Hoffman

It is then

Jennifer Causey

So at nighttime

When she is winding down

And I'm still writing books about how to get comfortable

In the skin she gave me

I see rock stars on stages smashing guitars

And it is then that I want to find them a comfortable chair,

Get them a snack, and introduce them to daylight

- Buddy Wakefield

The Earth Beneath My Feet

Miranda Silver is in Dover, in the ground beneath her mother's house.

Her throat is blocked with a slice of apple

(to stop her speaking the words that may betray her)

her ears are filled with earth

(to keep her from hearing sounds that will confuse her)

her eyes are closed, but

her heart thrums hard like hummingbird wings.

- White Is For Witching, Helen Oyeyemi

Blowing off the Sea

Christina Richards

“The long, drawn-out process of being undermined by inertia had made him unsure of anything anymore. He had brief interludes of absolute clarity, usually when he was on the beach or sitting among the dunes sheltering him from the biting cold winds blowing off the sea, and it sometimes seemed to him the whole thing was pointless.” - The Man Who Smiled, Henning Mankell

Reckoning

Neil Craver

“But loss isn’t science; it’s a human reckoning.” - Meghan O’Rourke, “Why We Write About Grief”

Truth

John Jude Palencar

“Now, before I tell you my story, let me tell you another story. I don’t know if it actually happened, but I know that it’s true.” - Joel ben Izzy, Snap Judgment