Night Sky with Exit Wounds

by Ocean Vuong

some nights you are the lighthouse / some nights the sea / what this means is that I don’t know / desire other than the need / to be shattered & rebuilt

It’s simple: I just don’t know how to love a man gently. Tenderness a thing to be beaten into.

Patriarchy makes it very difficult for men to love and be loved with any tenderness.

For hunger is to give the body what it knows it cannot keep.

Don’t we touch each other just to prove we are still here? I was still here once.

I thought love was real & the body imaginary.

The most beautiful part of your body is where it’s headed. & remember, loneliness is still time spent with the world.