Alisha Bruton

“I don't like my language watered down, I don't like my edges rounded off.”
― Ani Difranco

“And now I understand something so frightening &wonderful-

how the mind clings to the road it knows,
rushing through crossroads, sticking

like lint to the familiar.”
― Mary Oliver, Blue Pastures

“We die containing a richness of lovers and tribes, tastes we have swallowed, bodies we have plunged into and swum up as if rivers of wisdom, characters we have climbed into as if trees, fears we have hidden in as if caves.

I wish for all this to be marked on by body when I am dead. I believe in such cartography - to be marked by nature, not just to label ourselves on a map like the names of rich men and women on buildings. We are communal histories, communal books. We are not owned or monogamous in our taste or experience.”
― Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient

“I still don’t know what kind of woman I am. But as the flame nears the fingers that trust the match, as close as the skin can stand it to singe, I call this the nerve to find out.

-Self Portrait Of A Woman Standing Outside Your House With A Match And A Gallon Of Gasoline”
― Ashley Toliver