“I am sick of the I that seeks, that asked if I should find a new audience, and when you didn’t respond, I knew you:

a)     weren’t sure,

b)     won’t try,

c)     will never see me.

d)     all of the above.”

“This is about juxtaposition. Juxtaposition is like when two people care about each other but it doesn’t work out. It’s about when a cacophonous word comes up against another word. An apology to your shadow self. It’s about resistance art.”

“When my husband and I met, he worked the graveyard shift at a Shell gas station. I’d drop in before I went to bed with a thick letter I’d written. Sometimes I’d include a mix tape, mostly Ani Difranco. Once it was a copy of The Bell Jar, tucked into a manila envelope. I didn’t want him to see the cover, in case his face fell—a book?”

“But when I woke up the next morning there was only one left, his rounded fishhook eyes blinking, his terrifyingly translucent body pulsing as if the whole thing were his heart. I convinced myself that there had only ever been one goldfish, that it was perfectly normal for two separate but similar beings to melt into each other and become one without either having died.”

“They say holding a gun increases a man’s testosterone. And mentalization, not being able to think about what’s inside your mind and what’s inside the mind of another.”

“Letters, weeks filing past / between them, long-necked like vees / of geese. Which outpost? / Which outpost? You pouring sand”

“1. I’ll start with the petty: the spelling, the grammar, the incorrect dates, etc. I was not sure whether it would ever hold up in court. I asked him if he didn’t want to at least correct the spelling of my name. He said it was fine. The DMV wouldn’t accept it for a number of reasons, which led to other complications. He told me many times that he was unable to spell because he had once been a lifeguard. “

“If someone would have just cleaned it up, it would taken five seconds and we could all have gotten back to work. But, of course, if someone had just cleaned it up we would be living in an alternate universe in which the people who work in this office are competent, considerate, and capable of operating something with as many moving parts as a fucking sponge.”

“one or two sentences from the essay”

 “Sometimes  the  mundane things are themost helpful.  A bigger stage and better equipment.  Trajectories and linesof  flight.  More  silence. “

“or they fall out with the barest pressure, when i apply lipstick or when i brush them, when i touch the gum line it gives like bubble yum soft and wet but no stick my mouth a plump soil overrun with hard teeth my words must grow around, i gather them until my mouth is lush, i throw them into the sky like rice at a wedding”

“If there’s an online petition, sign, comment, and send as a private message to friends who should be more aware of important issues. Persist in commenting and sharing until weak from hunger, it’s time to go to Mr. Holmes Bakehouse for a midmorning croissant.”

“Owl unlocked the door before the sun rose, started the coffee, hot dog roller, and pizza lamp, mopped the floor, flipped the sign, stood behind the register in a cocoon of cigarette cartons, sweet tobacco behind its barrier of cellophane, a cold plastic spike through the nose.”

“ Autopay & deposits in my knuckles, fingers filled with shards of angry bones. Whipped not buttercreamed. Short on the sides & back. High & tight. A fraction of a percentage. Same difference. One size fits & starts, fits some but not all. Batteries & piggy banks & bottled water, pickled & canned. Nothing missed: a six pence, a threepenny opera, an ounce of blow, of gold, of plug nickels, of dollars penniless down to the cent. “  

“He had to bury his mother. In the tiny mirror his face looked like his own but sweatier, seizing with the Boeing's jostle and shock. How many planes had he boarded today? All nausea, all innards in upheaval. His head, muddled puddle of a brain, defiant, worked in spurts. His wife guiding him gate to gate, plane to plane. It was agony conforming to new heights, to hit the ground. He was a ball juggled into the air, New Mexican air, Texan air.”

“Yes, I’m sure your dad paid for the beers. Of course the ice cream melted. The tampons were Playtex, not OB.”

“My grandmother in the dining room with the deck of cards. My grandfather in the garage with the red rubber ball on a fishing line that lets you know when to stop driving.“

“I see the ghost who once was a boy / who played baseball but loved fútbolI see the ghost who once was a boy / who lost his boot in a snow drift”

“Product placement has been commonplace in television and cinema since the very beginning. Slides were inserted into early movies, advertising stores, and household items. Television continued this trend with soap powder, toothpaste, you name it, bankrolling entire genres of programming. These days, computers and tablets, soft drinks, and sugary cereals are subtly, and not so, revealed on our screens. And why not? They help pay for the production of our entertainment. At some point along the way, fiction was excluded from this lucrative arrangement and as such made claim to literature clinging true to art, unfettered by the pernicious influence of cold hard cash.” 

“This is your ticket to passing the Bechdel Test! Here are 28 ideas to get you started. Use these teaser lines to begin your scene. For example, the answer to number 2 might be lemon zest. The answer to number 16 might be “Yea, but you go first.” Expand from there!”