Incorrect Merciful Impulses Quotes

“I am dirt
and all the nights that keep ending like this:
I return from the party, my life is smoke,
I fall asleep trying to seduce you”
― Camille Rankine, Incorrect Merciful Impulses

“The arc of my throat awaits a tenderness or a brutality.”
― Camille Rankine, Incorrect Merciful Impulses

“Dear night: It was so warm
under you that I offered
but you refused

to endure. You won't remember
me. (We danced. I was the one
in the dark. I was wearing

this face.) In daylight, I'm an acre of empty
desert, anyway. A spent white flower. A pale
honey scent wilted away.

And I'm having this dream:
I am mourned by millions.
I died young and I was so, so pretty.”
― Camille Rankine, Incorrect Merciful Impulses

“In both my lives, my nerves go bust.
I’m certain that I’m not

as I appear, that I’m a figment
and you’re not really here.

The struggle
is authenticity.

I have a message.
You must believe me.”
― Camille Rankine, Incorrect Merciful Impulses

“The Increasing Frequency of Black Swans"

I was listening for the dog
when the locks were pried open.
The man was dead. The dog, a survivor,
was dead. It happens

more often this way.
A disease left
untreated; the body,
in confusion, gives in.

The bomb breathes its fire down
the hallway, the son comes back
in pieces; the body,
in confusion, gives in.

The grief is a planet. A dust ring.
A small moon that’s been hidden
under my pillow, that’s been changing
the way my body moves this whole time.”
― Camille Rankine, Incorrect Merciful Impulses

“The irrational forest,
your stupid mouth,
a breath stillborn.

Define: Lake.
Ink stain. The cold, cold water.
The heart’s slow beat.”
― Camille Rankine, Incorrect Merciful Impulses