NIGHT SKY WITH EXIT WOUNDSÂ SENTENCE STARTERS.
all text taken from the poetry book night sky with exit wounds by ocean vuong.
â Â in the body, where everything has a price, i was a beggar. Â â
â Â he was singing, which is why i remember it. his voice â it filled me to the core like a skeleton. Â â
â Â even my name knelt down inside me, asking to be spared. Â â
â Â it is all i remember. Â â
â Â i was alive. i didnât know there was a better reason. Â â
â Â i lost it all with my eyes wide open. Â â
â Â do you know who i am? Â â
â Â how easily a boy in a dress the red of shut eyes vanishes beneath the sound of his own galloping. Â â
â Â iâm dreaming of a curtain of snow falling from her shoulders. Â â
â Â snow scraping against the window. snow shredded with gunfire. red sky. Â â
â Â show me how ruin makes a home out of hip bones. Â â
â Â let every river envy our mouths. let every kiss hit the body like a season. Â â
â Â if you must know anything, know that the hardest task is to live only once. Â â
â Â if we make it to shore, i will name our son after this water. i will learn to love a monster. Â â
â Â he laughs despite knowing he has ruined every beautiful thing just to prove beauty cannot change him. Â â
â Â hey! you didnât have to go this far. why did you go so far? Â â
â Â sometimes i feel like an ampersand. Â â
â Â everyone can forget us â as long as you remember. Â â
â Â i hold the gun & wonder if an entry wound in the night would make a hole as wide as morning. Â â
â Â thereâs a lighthouse. some nights you are the lighthouse, some nights the sea. Â â
â Â what this means is that i donât know desire other than the need to be shattered & rebuilt. Â â
â Â even tomorrow you will have today. Â â
â Â youâll never forget yourself the way god forgets his hands. Â â
â Â the body is a blade that sharpens by cutting. Â â
â Â my mother said i could be anything i wanted â but i chose to live. Â â
â Â i am ready to be every animal you leave behind. Â â
â Â and this is how we loved: a fifth of vodka and an afternoon in the attic, your fingers though my hair â my hair a wildfire. Â â
â Â when our lips touched the day closed into a coffin. Â â
â Â the year is a distance weâve traveled in circles. Â â
â Â we made it, baby. weâre riding in the back of the black limousine. Â â
â Â i love my country. i pretend nothing is wrong. Â â
â Â iâm holding your still-hot thoughts in, darling, my sweet, sweet ___. Â â
â Â you want to tell him itâs okay that the night is also a grave we climb out of. Â â
â Â you say thank you thank you thank you because you havenât learned the purpose of forgive me. Â â
â Â youâre so quiet youâre almost tomorrow. Â â
â Â to love another man â is to leave no one behind to forgive me. i want to leave no one behind. Â â
â Â even though heâs gone, i still want to be clean. Â â
â Â if only the rain were gasoline, your tongue a lit match, & you can change without disappearing. Â â
â Â he dies each night you close your eyes & hear his slow exhale. Â â
â Â wait, i have something to say. Â â
â Â as if my finger, tracing your collarbone behind closed doors, was enough to erase myself. Â â
â Â to forget we built this house knowing it wonât last. Â â
â Â itâs funny. i always knew iâd be warmest beside by man. Â â
â Â donât laugh. just tell me the story again. Â â
â Â speak â until your voice is nothing but the crackle of charred bones. Â â
â Â look how happy we are to be no one & still american. Â â
â Â iâll tell you how weâre wrong enough to be forgiven/ Â â
â Â say youâd kill for it. Â â
â Â donât we touch each other just to prove we are still here? Â â
â Â silly me. i thought love was real and the body imaginary. Â â
â Â i said yes because you asked me to stay. Â â
â Â there is so much i want to tell you. how my greatest accolade was to walk across the brooklyn bridge & not think of flight. Â â
â Â you will always remember what you were doing when it hurts the most. Â â
â Â dearest father, forgive me for i have seen. Â â
â Â once, i fell in love during a slow-motion car crash. Â â
â Â i wrote a better hour onto the page & watched the fire take it back. Â â
â Â this means you are not alone. Â â
â Â donât stay here. donât cry anymore. Â â
â Â i promise to stop soon. Â â
â Â how come depression makes me feel more alive? Â â
â Â i shouldnât have, but he had the hands of someone i used to know. someone i was used to. Â â
â Â i dreamed i walked barefoot all the way to your house in the snow. everything was the blue of smudged ink and you were still alive. Â â
â Â here. thatâs all i wanted to be. Â â
â Â donât worry. your father is only your father until one of you forgets. Â â
â Â the end of the road is so far ahead it is already behind us. Â â
â Â donât be afraid, the gunfire is only the sound of people trying to live a little longer & failing. Â â
â Â remember, loneliness is still time spent with the world. Â â
â Â the difference between prayer & mercy is how you move the tongue. Â â
â Â so what if my feathers are burning. i never asked for flight. Â â