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61 " Everyone’s chest is a living room wall with awkwardly placed photographs hiding fist-shaped holes. "
― Andrea Gibson
62 " If a tree fell in the forest, and you were the only one there to hear it; if its fall to the ground didn’t make a sound, would you panic in fear that you didn’t exist, or would you bask in the bliss of your nothingness? "
63 " And if there’s one thing in this world I’ve ever known for sure, it’s that this girl is gonna crush me like a small bug, leave me so fucking broken there’ll be body bags beneath my eyes from nights I cried so hard the stars died. But I’m like, go ahead. I’m all yours. I would kiss you in the middle of the ocean during a lightning storm, cause I’d rather be left for dead than left to wonder what thunder sounds like. "
64 " Cause I don't wanna be a witness to this life,I want to be charged and convicted,ear lifted to her song like a bouquet of yesbecause my heart is a parachute that has never opened in timeand I wanna fuck up that pattern,leave a hole where the cold comes in and fill it every day with her sun,'cause anyone who has ever sat in lotus for more than a few secondsknows it takes a hell of a lot more muscle to stay than to go "
― Andrea Gibson , Pole Dancing To Gospel Hymns
65 " But when I thought I hit bottom, it started hitting back. "
66 " You have a heart of gold and I am kneeling in your bloodstream panning for the only thing that has ever felt like home. "
67 " I have never met a heavy heart that wasn’t a phone booth with a red cape insideSome people will never understand the kind of superpower it takes for some people to just walk outsideSome days I know my smile looks like the gutter of a falling houseBut my hands are always holding tight to the ripchord of believing "
68 " Our insanity is not that we see people who aren’t there. It’s that we ignore the ones who are. "
69 " I WANT YOU TO TELL ME ABOUT EVERY PERSON YOU’VE EVER BEEN IN LOVE WITH. TELL ME WHY YOU LOVED THEM, THEN TELL ME WHY THEY LOVED YOU. TELL ME ABOUT A DAY IN YOUR LIFE YOU DIDN’T THINK YOU’D LIVE THROUGH. TELL ME WHAT THE WORD “HOME” MEANS TO YOU AND TELL ME IN A WAY THAT I’LL KNOW YOUR MOTHER’S NAME JUST BY THE WAY YOU DESCRIBE YOUR BED ROOM WHEN YOU WERE 8. SEE, I WANNA KNOW THE FIRST TIME YOU FELT THE WEIGHT OF HATE AND IF THAT DAY STILL TREMBLES BENEATH YOUR BONES. DO YOU PREFER TO PLAY IN PUDDLES OF RAIN OR BOUNCE IN THE BELLIES OF SNOW? AND IF YOU WERE TO BUILD A SNOWMAN, WOULD YOU RIP TWO BRANCHES FROM A TREE TO BUILD YOUR SNOWMAN ARMS? OR WOULD YOU LEAVE THE SNOWMAN ARMLESS FOR THE SAKE OF BEING HARMLESS TO THE TREE? AND IF YOU WOULD, WOULD YOU NOTICE HOW THAT TREE WEEPS FOR YOU BECAUSE YOUR SNOWMAN HAS NO ARMS TO HUG YOU EVERY TIME YOU KISS HIM ON THE CHEEK? DO YOU KISS YOUR FRIENDS ON THE CHEEK? DO YOU SLEEP BESIDE THEM WHEN THEY’RE SAD, EVEN IF IT MAKES YOUR LOVER MAD? DO YOU THINK THAT ANGER IS A SINCERE EMOTION OR JUST THE TIMID MOTION OF A FRAGILE HEART TRYING TO BEAT AWAY ITS PAIN? SEE, I WANNA KNOW WHAT YOU THINK OF YOUR FIRST NAME. AND IF YOU OFTEN LIE AWAKE AT NIGHT AND IMAGINE YOUR MOTHER’S JOY WHEN SHE SPOKE IT FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME. I WANT YOU TELL ME ALL THE WAYS YOU’VE BEEN UNKIND. TELL ME ALL THE WAYS YOU’VE BEEN CRUEL. SEE, I WANNA KNOW MORE THAN WHAT YOU DO FOR A LIVING. I WANNA KNOW HOW MUCH OF YOUR LIFE YOU SPEND JUST GIVING. AND IF YOU LOVE YOURSELF ENOUGH TO ALSO RECEIVE SOMETIMES. I WANNA KNOW IF YOU BLEED SOMETIMES THROUGH OTHER PEOPLE’S WOUNDS. "
70 " I’ve written this poem before but always through a window, never through an open door. "
71 " My mouth is a fire escape.The words coming out don't care that they are naked.There is something burning in here. When it burns I hold my own shell to my ear, listen for the parade from when I was seven, when the man who played the bagpipeswore a skirt. He was from Scotland.I wanted to move there. Wanted my spine to be the spineof an unpublished book, my faith the first and last page. The day my ribcage became monkey barsfor a girl hanging on my every wordthey said, "You are not allowed to love her."Tried to take me by the throatto teach me, "You are not a boy."I had to unlearn their prison speak, refusing to make wishes on the star on the sheriff's chest. I started taking to the stars in the sky instead.I said, "Tell me about the big bang."The stars said, "It hurts to become. "
― Andrea Gibson , The Madness Vase
72 " Baby, I have no idea how this will end. Maybe the equator will fall like a hula hoop from the earth’s hips and our mouths will freeze mid-kiss on our 80th anniversary or maybe tomorrow my absolute insanity combined with the absolute obstacle course of your communication skills will leave us like a love letter in a landfill. But whatever, however, whenever this ends I want you to know that right now, I love you forever. "
― Andrea Gibson ,
73 " You are a mystery I promise I will never try to solve. "
74 " Loveisn't always magic.But if I offered my body to the magician,if I told him to cut me in halfso after that I could come to you wholeand ask for you backwould you listenfor this dark alley love song?For the winter we heated our home from the steam off our own bodies? "
75 " This is for the times you went through hell so someone else wouldn’t have to. "
― Andrea Gibson , When The Bough Breaks
76 " What I know about living is the pain is never just oursEvery time I hurt I know the wound is an echoSo I keep a listening to the moment the grief becomes a windowWhen I can see what I couldn’t see before,through the glass of my most battered dream, I watched a dandelion lose its mind in the windand when it did, it scattered a thousand seeds.So the next time I tell you how easily I come out of my skin, don’t try to put me back injust say here we are together at the window aching for it to all get better "
77 " Remember, you didn’t come here to write your heart out. You came to write it in. "
78 " I wanna know what you seewhen you look in the mirror on a day you’re feeling good. I wanna know what you see when you look in the mirror on a day you’re feeling bad. I wanna know the first person who taught you your beauty could ever be reflected on a lousy piece of glass. "
79 " Everything but "I LOVE YOU" is small talk. "
80 " Hey, are you a boy or a — never mind, can I have a push on the swing?” And some day, y’all, when we grow up, it’s all gonna be that simple. "