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1 " I’ve shared more breakfasts with you thanany woman I’ve dated in the last year and a half,” Mitch returned.“I know what you look like in the morning. I know what you act likewhen you come home tired after work. I know that you pick the leastexpensive thing on the menu either to be nice or to be annoying inorder to put me off. But I think it’s to be nice because youare nice and also both times you thought you’d be spendingtime with just me, you dressed in a way that would not, in any way,put me off. I know you cuddle when you’re sleeping. I know you takeonly milk in your coffee and you make coffee strong. I know you’rereally good with kids. And I know that you use music and scents toregulate your mood. So I’m thinking this is not a first date. Thisis more like us hittin’ the six month mark. And the six month markis when you stop talkin’ about shit that really doesn’t matter andstart talkin’ about shit that means everything. "
― Kristen Ashley
2 " A door jumpsout from shadows,then jumps away. Thisis what I've come to find:the back door, unlatched.Tooled by insular wind, itslams and slamswithout meaningto and without meaning. "
― Li-Young Lee , The City in Which I Love You
3 " Inside, Harrison came face to face witha small man wearing immense plus fours.“Looking for someone?” asked the small man.“Yes, the fire chief.”“Who’s he?”By now prepared for this sort of thing, Harrisonspoke as one would to a child. “See here, Mister, thisis a fire-fighting outfit. Somebody bosses it. Somebodyorganizes the whole affair, fills forms, pressesbuttons, shouts orders, recommends promotions,kicks the shiftless, grabs all the credit, transfers allthe blame and generally lords it around. He’s themost important man in the bunch and everybodyknows it.” His forefinger tapped imperatively on theother’s chest. “And he is the fellow I’m going to talkto if it’s the last thing I do.”“Nobody is more important than anyone else.How can he be? I think you’re crazy.”“You’re welcome to think what you please but Iam telling you that—.”A shrill bell clamoured, cutting off his sentence. "
― Eric Frank Russell , The Great Explosion
4 " Nobody sees it happening, but the architecture of our timeIs becoming the architecture of the next time. And the dazzleOf light upon the waters is as nothing beside the changesWrought therein, just as our waywardness meansNothing against the steady pull of things over the edge.Nobody can stop the flow, but nobody can start it either.Time slips by; our sorrows do not turn into poems,And what is invisible stays that way. Desire has fled,Leaving only a trace of perfume in its wake,And so many people we loved have gone,And no voice comes from outer space, from the foldsOf dust and carpets of wind to tell us that thisIs the way it was meant to happen, that if only we knewHow long the ruins would last we would never complain. "
― Mark Strand
5 " . . . Thisis not the same river at my fingertips. There are no paths, no sunken roadsfamiliar in the forest, by which we canretrace our steps, by which we can escapeby which we can reclaim and return, or hear the child’s song running in the timothy . . . "
― John Daniel Thieme , paulinskill hours and other poems