as the image of myself becomes sharper in my brain and more precious, I feel less afraid that someone else will erase me by denying me love. 

**jenny slate - little weirds**

they press buttons to learn about life and explore the world. their thoughts emerge on screens and dwell inside clouds that have no substance, no shortage of space.

**jhumpa lahiri - whereabouts** 

it is the absent advent of sound giving dimension to my silent world that I do not want to miss. 


**hannah merker - listening** 

I think it’s that no one can live that long and not become something entirely alien.

**n.k. jemisin**

she looks different from how she looked when she arrived, when I watched her sleep and dream the first time. perhaps it is not her, but my eyes, that are changed. 

**wild dark shores by charlotte mcconaghy**

we cannot know from whose mouths the echoes of our lives will chime. 

**a ghost in the throat - doireann ni ghriofa** 

id rather live with a tender heart because that is the key to feeling the beat of all the other hearts. 

**jenny slate - little weirds** 

A fashion editorial for <n>Vogue Portugal</n>'s <n>The Memories Issue</n>, photographed by <n>Studio Carlos Teixeira</n>.

it’s time to be curious about what lives in the ocean of you beyond the island of other peoples needs. 

**kai cheng thom - falling back in love with being human** 

when you are ten, shame stitches itself into you like a monogram, broadcasting to the world what holds you, what rules your soul. 

**martyr! by kaveh akbar** 

this is why I fear the goddess of vengeance. she is beautiful and terrible. she demands your whole being in exchange for her gifts.

**kai cheng thom - falling back in love with being human** 

“what if I could always be a little bit on this island in my mind? what if I could always be a little bit naked, a little bit kissing everything, an unplundered trove of my own love?”

**Jenny slate - little weirds** 

“you do not get to keep what is sweetest to you; you only get to remember it from the vantage point of having lost it.”

**elsewhere by alexis schaitkin** 

For the first time, I felt the full weight of our affliction: the peril of immense loss and the power of immense love, the two forces impossible to disentangle, for they were one in the same.

**elsewhere by alexis schaitkin**

shrimp to me had always seemed rather like the cockroaches of the ocean. 

**all this could be different by sarah thankam Mathews**

A portrait from the <n>Liquid Mirrors</n> series by photographer <n>Jordan Tiberio</n>.

the only enemies we knew were time and each other.

**jamison shea**

they’re all vultures in people suits. 

**jamison shea** 

the body has its ways to speak without speaking.

**catherine lacey - pew** 

“may you not go around the world looking to fill what you fear you lack with the flesh of another human being.”

**lisa taddeo - animal** 

sometimes a female body serves another by effecting a theft upon itself. 

**a ghost in the throat - doireann ni ghriofa**

she had everything she wanted; all she had to do was convince herself that she wanted very little. 

**miriam toews - women talking** 

the deafening sound of the sky being cracked down the middle like a rib cage. 

**laura steven - our infinite fates** 

I don’t want to stop working when I die because when do I get the opportunity to live?!

**jellojai - tiktok** 

gardens, history, and hope are the same. Though once dearly beloved, if left untended, without anyone’s dedication and care, much will be totally lost. 

**camille t. dungy - soil** 

sometimes I think the force of your love could mend the earth. 

**laura steven - our infinite fates**

there is no violence left in her voice, but what’s left is somehow worse. this languid monster in her lovers flesh. 

**v.e schwab** 

sleep alone demanded that embarrassing recital. as if to incentivize the whole ordeal, the body offered you dreams. in exchange for a third of your living, you were offered sprawling feasts, exotic adventures, beautiful lovers, wings. or at least the promise of them, made only slightly less intoxicating by the curious threat of nightmare. how sometimes, at random, your mind would decide to reduce you to a whimper, or a gasp, in the night. 

**martyr! by kaveh akbar** 

he gazed into Ursula’s face, both familiar and unspeakingly strange, and it was as though he was staring directly into a fissure ripped into the fabric of reality- an absurd and leering gash that defied all meaning and comprehension. 

**susan barker - old soul** 

forgiveness is sometimes just a costume for forgetting. 

**catherine lacey - pew** 

<n>Verdant Sway — Animated Grass & Solitary Tree</n>.

if a hero is someone who will give up love to save the world, then a villain is the reverse. someone who will give up the world to save love. 

**laura steven - our infinite fates** 

Each of us is many persons.
To me I’m who I think I am,
But others see me differently 
And are equally mistaken 

Don’t dream me into someone else
But leave me alone, in peace!
If I don’t want to find myself
Should I want others to find me?
**

fernando pessoa - songbook (193**

even now, a blade of longing carved through my chest, the acute sense of being robbed of something wonderful and warm and safe. 

**laura steven - our infinite fates** 

I wrote to summon the language that might help me fall back in love with being human. 

**kai cheng thom - falling back in love with being human** 

a mother was a chance to hate someone as much as you loved them, caring and wounding, a push and pull that only tightened the knot that bound you. 

**elsewhere by alexis schaitkin** 

and so even when there’s no big joy, there’s still the small joy. a sunset, a flask of tea. your hand in mine. 

**laura steven - our infinite fates**

tomorrow was impossibly far away and yesterday had been left behind. 

**emme lund - the boy with a bird in his chest** 

“no matter how much I give of myself to household chores, each of the rooms under my control swiftly unravels itself again in my aftermath, as though a shadow hand were already beginning the unwritten lists of my tomorrows.”

**a ghost in the throat by doireann ni ghriofa** 