Reader

“Guests began drifting toward the edge of the lawn.
Jane heard the shift around her as someone whispered,
“Graham’s here.”
― D.L. Maddox, Secrets

“إذا أشبعت كلباً جائعاً فإنه لَن يعضك .. ذلك هو الفرق بينه وبين الإنسان!”
― مارك توين

“Variation on the Word Sleep

I would like to watch you sleeping,
which may not happen.
I would like to watch you,
sleeping. I would like to sleep
with you, to enter
your sleep as its smooth dark wave
slides over my head.

and walk with you through that lucent
wavering forest of bluegreen leaves
with its watery sun & three moons
towards the cave where you must descend,
towards your worst fear

I would like to give you the silver
branch, the small white flower, the one
word that will protect you
from the grief at the center
of your dream, from the grief
at the center. I would like to follow
you up the long stairway
again & become
the boat that would row you back
carefully, a flame
in two cupped hands
to where your body lies
beside me, and you enter
it as easily as breathing in

I would like to be the air
that inhabits you for a moment
only. I would like to be that unnoticed
& that necessary.”
― Margaret Atwood, Selected Poems 2: 1976 - 1986

“I called and called until someone took pity and told me what was going on. She developed COVID-19 pneumonia and they put her on a ventilator.”
My sister’s crying was bordering on hysteria. “Jack, she died this morning! Deloris is gone! I still can’t believe it!”
I swerved, slammed on the brakes, and pulled the Ram over to the side of the highway.”
― Behcet Kaya, Deception: A Jack Ludefance Novel