Words for Everything

ACCORDING TO METACRITIC, “LEMONADE” BY BEYONCÉ IS THE MOST ACCLAIMED FEMALE ALBUM OF THE DECADE.

You find the black tube inside her beauty case where she keeps your father’s old prison letters. You desperately want to look like her. You look nothing like your mother. You look everything like your mother. Film star beauty. How to wear your mother’s lipstick. You go to the bathroom to apply your mother’s lipstick. Somewhere no one can find you.

You must wear it like she wears disappointment on her face. Your mother is a woman and women like her cannot be contained. Mother dearest, let me inherit the earth. Teach me how to make him beg. Let me make up for the years he made you wait. Did he bend your reflection? Did he make you forget your own name? Did he convince you he was a god? Did you get on your knees daily? Do his eyes close like doors? Are you a slave to the back of his head?

Am I talking about your husband or your father?

Amy being the friend we all need.

In my grandparents’ time, it was believed that spirits existed everywhere… in trees, rivers, insects, wells, anything… I like the idea that we should all treasure everything because spirits might exist there, and we should treasure everything because there is a kind of life to everything. — Hayao Miyazaki.

“Development of Shapes in Space” (animation, 2020)

Dominique Cheng

Do I make you sad? I don’t know. Sometimes I think that when I’m older, I’ll have a daughter of my own or something… and I feel like if she was like me, then being her mum would make me sad all the time. I’d love her because she’s my daughter, but I think if she turned out like me that being her mum would make me really sad.