Reid

“I’ve lined my throat
with the river bottom’s best
silt,

allowed my fingers to shrivel
and be taken for crawfish.

I’ve laced my eyelashes with algae.

I blink emerald.
I blink sea glass green.

I am whatever gleams
just under the surface.

Scoop at my sparkle. I’ll give you nothing
but disturbed reflection.

Bring your ear to the water
and I’ll sing you

down into my arms.

Let me show you how

to make your lungs
a home for minnows, how

to let them flicker

like silver

in and out of your mouth
like last words,

like air.”
― saeed jones, When the Only Light Is Fire

“It was like he'd been mildly puzzled to death.”
― Louise Erdrich, The Sentence

“Clean clothes. Gentle talk. Someone to wake up with. Maybe relationships would work if they were based on present-tense actions that never looked for a future beyond the next day.”
― Steve S. Saroff, Paper Targets: Art Can Be Murder

“(An alien, speaking of humans:) "Quite frankly, Mr. Rogers notwithstanding, you're a mess.”
― Catherynne M. Valente, Space Opera