Jessica Amanda Salmonson

“Of justice you will find none.... To judge is evil. To mete justice, more appalling still. Act from compassion and you will do better than to devise any code or facade of justice.”

“When the Universe folds into a sigh,Withdrawing from all agony and grief,Time will cease its flowing, and with reliefThe cosmic Breath will freeze and Time will die.Evil souls that once were us ariseTo devour the corpse, like clouds of flies.”

“It was night. There was a drizzle, so Emily's black Japanese umbrella was up. The two were close beneath it, walking in long strides, beautiful, sinister-looking lovers, narrow squared shoulders in dark coats. A tall pickup truck sped by and a was a phlem struck the edge of the pavement near where they were walking. Emily raised a finger, cocked her thumb, and said, "Bang.""Got the left rear tire." said Anthony."The truck rolled," she added, "and burst into flames.""He's still alive," said Anthony, "climbing out of the broken rear window, his hair and clothes ablaze, screaming for help.""Punky boys come and piss on him," said Emily.The discussion was very quiet, very earnest."They put out the fire from his burning body," said Anthony, "but he dies later in the burn ward.""His family is relieved and happy," said Emily with stunning finality.Twenty-four hours later the spitting driver dies on a suburban highway near his home, his pickup spinning out of control on black ice, the vehicle exploding into flame. Anthony and Emily never know about it, never guess a connection to their curse, having never thought of him a second time.”

“What if all things in our imagination exist somewhere?" he said. "What if dreams are real?""It would be nice to have black wings," Emily admitted."But it would be our fears, too. Our worst nightmares. Perhaps the dark things are balanced by the sexual imagination, the nightmares tempered. The place of dreams, of suppressed consciousness, ceases to be merely the repository of the bad things we can't face, as we build, instead, a paradise, because we fuck.""There are Buddhist sects that say so. There are temples in Asia with very shocking carvings.”

“No one must ever fancy another human being so much more evil than themselves that killing was justified.”