She was sweeter than red figs.

W.R., ON THE DEATH OF SUMMER AND BAPTISMAL PROMISES

I’m convinced that if you could have seen my grandmother standing in the doorway waiting for him to come home from the fields, if you’d smelled that spectacular evening thick with sweat & felt the pulsing of the stars, if you’d borne witness to the animals’ moans echoing in the holler that night, if you just could have seen the hair rise up on granddaddy’s arm like that, like offerings to god, when his elbow touched hers, if you could have seen her longing dissipate just a little as he came through the door smelling like a day’s work, you should have seen them close enough to breathe the same air while not even touching. (He smiled at her without smiling.) If you could have seen them watching me watch them, then you’d know how much i love you. If you could have heard her say, You want some supper? We got pie.

Rose and Walnut Cookies

Not anyone who says, “I’m going to be careful and smart in matters of love,” who says, “I’m going to choose slowly,” but only those lovers who didn’t choose at all but were, as it were, chosen by something invisible and powerful and uncontrollable and beautiful and possibly even unsuitable — only those know what I’m talking about in this talking about love.

Pursuit of Jade 《逐玉》 (2026) ／ Eps. 34 + 36 Fan Changyu and Xie Zheng + homecoming

Rainy day roses

Lil almond croissants for my roommate’s birthday breakfast (homemade frangipane and rum syrup, store-bought day old croissants)

Patricia Highsmith, Her Diaries and Notebooks: 1941-1995

today I got the most beautiful batch of strawberries

• صحيح الترمذي (٣٣٧٠)

of a story about loam and usual endurance. It’s there when you clean up and rinse the wine glasses and make a joke, and you leave the minutest whiff of it on the light switch, later, when you climb the stairs.

CARMEN M. PURSIFULL — The Many Faces of Passion, (2003)