On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

by Ocean Vuong

I read that beauty has historically demanded replication. We make more of anything we find aesthetically pleasing, whether it’s a vase, a painting, a chalice, a poem. We reproduce it in order to keep it, extend it through space and time.

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

What we would give to have the ruined lives of animals tell a human story—when our lives are in themselves the story of animals.