Dahlia Season Quotes

“Gabriella let go of the knife and I held it in the same place for a minute or so, slowly dragging it up and down my thigh, doing it with a really light touch, not really doing any damage. I pulled it up my leg again but on its way down I put pressure on shaft, broke the skin with it, the blade traveling horizontally down the length of my leg for her, to show her how ready I was for her, so she could see some part of me that was on the inside.”
― Myriam Gurba, Dahlia Season: Stories and a Novella

“Rae gets me pure and simple, my frustrations with the loop tape that is my thought process, the boiling pot that is my body. She feels my frustrations because she got a mix-up, too; she's not really a girl. Like, she's got a pussy covered with thick hair and she's got a full rack, but she's really a guy trapped in a gold mine of a stripper's body. As a he-she, Rae knows what it's like to feel bananas. Just like I'm chaotic neurotransmitters imprisoned by flesh and bone, she's masculinity poured into a body that curves like a Coke bottle.”
― Myriam Gurba, Dahlia Season: Stories and a Novella

“But the truth is, until your homies gaze into your soul and see who you really are, your name doesn't mean anything. Your family, they want to change the real you, prevent the real you from ever happening, and so the name they give you, it's an empty one. They'd rather not recognize the potential for evil as well as good that grows inside you, that from within your soul grins the smile of a sinner and criminal. But your clicka, they're not scared to see this 'cause when they look at you, they see themselves grinning right back. Your homies don't mourn the loss of innocence like your family does, your old lady remembering how proud she was the day of your first communion, tu primera comunión, as you got down on your hands and knees in front of a priest and took the host on your tongue for the first time. They know that, in the barrio, innocence is a lie and that the biggest lie of all is that you were ever really innocent at all. In the eyes of the world, you were born a sinner, a criminal, a whore, or a gang-banger. And with pride, your clicka gives birth to you and helps you fulfill this prophecy.”
― Myriam Gurba, Dahlia Season: Stories and a Novella