Can I Quote You On That?

Alfred, Lord Tennyson; Break, Break, Break

“And thus came the first little bird. It was dark blue with gold markings on its wing and tail feathers, and its beak was black. It was perhaps two inches long from beak to tail and less than an inch wide. Its legs were folded against its body (tiny, thin legs), its gaze was wide, and it was warm and damp, and made barely audible sounds. The terror I had felt vanish without my noticing.” ~ Adda Djørup, Birds {translated from Danish by Martin Aitken}

Marcus Sedgwick, The Ghosts of Heaven

General Douglas MacArthur; Duty, Honor, Country

Francoise Sagan

Libba Bray, A Great and Terrible Beauty

Richard Kadrey, Sandman Slim

               Maybe it was the timeless words in which she found her rescue. Maybe it was the countless sleepless nights full of the words of another and every wanton thought of how those fit together. Maybe it was the words she could over hear between lovers, simple, frightfully so, but at the same time holding more love and weight than she had ever felt. Maybe it was that she knew that life in itself was a book filled with words carefully chosen by the author to make it seem that maybe, if these words spoke loudly enough, the author, with his own book of life, wouldn’t feel as alone. Or maybe it was that she knew that the words wouldn’t lie to her, wouldn’t betray her, and they brought a stillness to her heart, the kind you get from security. It took so long to realize that these words were not her own and that they were slowly killing her, slowly taking away her ability to form her own words. By the time she did discover the wretched truth of her would-be savior—if not for the heartbreaking truth—it was too late. She was too far gone. Too dead. Maybe, it was the words…

Antoine de Saint Exupery, The Little Prince

Rose Ausländer

As if “just kidding” can repair the person you just destroyed.