Tracy K. Smith

“listen: the dark we've only ever imagined now audible, thrumming, marbled with static like gristly meat. a chorus of engines churns.silence taunts: a dare. everything that disappearsdisappears as if returning somewhere.”

“sometimes, what i see is a library in a rural community. all the tall shelves in the big open room. and the pencilsin a cup at circulation, gnawed on by the entire population.the books have lived here all along, belongingfor weeks at a time to one or another in the brief sequenceof family names, speaking (at night mostly) to a face,a pair of eyes. the most remarkable lies.”

“while the father storms through adjacent roomsranting with the force of kingdom come,not caring anymore what might snap us in its jaw”

“some like to imagine a cosmic mother watching through a spray of stars,mouthing 'yes, yes' as we toddle towards the light,biting her lip of we teeter at some ledge. longingto sweep us to her breast, she hopes for the best.”

“we like to think of it as parallel to what we knowonly bigger. one man against the authorities.or one man against a city of zombies. one manwho is not, in fact, a man, sent to understandthe caravan of men now chasing him like red antslet loose down the pants of america. man on the run.”

“the hoursplink past like water from a window a/c. we sweat it out, teach ourselves to wait. silently, lazily, collapse happens.”

“time never stops, but does it end? and how many livesbefore take-off, before we find ourselves beyond ourselves, all glam-glow, all twinkle and gold?”

“from time to time, i think of him watching mefrom over the top of his glasses, or eating candyfrom a jar. i remember thanking him each timethe session was done. but mostly what i seeis a human hand reaching down to lifta pebble from my tongue”

“[...] the body is what we lean toward,tensing as it darts, dancing away.but it's the voice that enters us. evensaying nothing. even saying nothingover and over absently to itself”

“everything/ that ever was still is, somewhere”