On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

by Ocean Vuong

You once told me that memory is a choice. But if you were god, you’d know it’s a flood.

she has the stare of someone who had gone beyond where she needed to go but kept walking anyway.

Because the thing about beauty is that it’s only beautiful outside of itself. Seen through a mirror,

That she was waiting. Because that’s what mothers do. They wait. They stand still until their children belong to someone else.

They say nothing lasts forever but they’re just scared it will last longer than they can love it.