Hand Me Down Tune

Jo Straube

I dreamt of a suit, a suit so fine I dressed my words in
Sewn and tailor made with song in mind, made of melody
Stitched by threads of notes with perfect pitch, perfectly composed
Sound in tune and key, a code of rhythm, and harmony
But when I awoke my coat was worn and my words were plain
Each song that I sang, all the notes were wrong and poorly played
Both my sleeves had holes, my knees were patched, my shoes needed soles
No clever disguise no way to hide my offensive tone
- The Avett Brothers

Exploded

“When they arrived at the palace she had a word with Grant, the young footman in charge, who said it was security and that while ma’am had been in the Lords the sniffer dogs had been round and security had confiscated the book. He thought it had probably been exploded.”
- The Uncommon Reader, Alan Bennett

Worse

“I pretended to be cheerfully busy, entering information into the computer, dusting and ordering the shelves, but in fact my new, rather prurient interest was looking up people’s reading habits. It was disgusting, really. An invasion of privacy, a petty crime of the soul. I’d begun by looking up my brother’s card; now I couldn’t seem to stop. That was my nature, take something bad and make it worse.”
- The Ice Queen, Alice Hoffman

In It

"This is for anyone ... who’s in it. The sticky tar pit of it. And might feel a little defeated, and can’t see the escape routes, sitting on the edge of their bed with the wind knocked out of their heart."

- Buddy Wakefield [2:15]

In Triplicate

Photographer unknown

“Having s license to kill as all well and good, but he had to fill in forms in triplicate whenever it was exercised.”
- Judgment of Tears, Kim Newman

Not More Upset

“After dropping Brandi off at the airport to go back to her skeevy boyfriend—with a ticket I paid for, no less, only to find her hours later with her head in Raff’s lap, no less—an idea has formed, a realization if you will. I don’t know, anyway, here it is: My family will be the death of me. And I don’t mean that in a ‘You kids will rue the day’ kind of way. No, I’m talking about knocking on heaven’s door, charge the beach at Normandy, shuffle off that mortal coil, deceased. But the real epiphany is I have absolutely no say in the matter. I wonder why I’m not more upset.”
- In Plain Sight, S01E11

Left Me

Ted Soqui

I know it left me lookin' like a knife fight, lady

I know it left me feelin' like a shotgun shell

- Buddy Wakefield