I wish I could peel all my sadness in one long strip off my skin & toss it in a bucket. No one would have to carry it. It would just sit there & be punished. It would just sit there & think about everything it’s done.

“I tell her, grief is not a feeling but a neighborhood. This is where I come from. Everyone I love still lives there.”

“I have to do it you see? I have to push you away. Because I ruin every good thing that comes my way. I can’t ruin you. Not now. But I will never let myself get to the point where I can. So I’ve got end it you see? Because I can’t do it, I can’t hurt you. I love you so I have to. I have to and I’m sorry.”

“The way you love is suffocating: ‘I miss you’ comes bleeding out like big hands wrapping around an already bruised neck. My skin is a wine-stained canvas from all the times you said you’d never leave.”

“But I am a fluorescent goddess, a charming man. Cool as a syringe. I am the angel on top of the tree. I can give you anything you want.”