“... I could feel a nostalgia for the evening already setting in, a longing for the existence of this night building before my eyes.”

“But even then I knew how it was going to be, I could feel the coming silence in the long, poisonous pauses that expanded as the night progressed.”

“It was a confirmation ofa connection that already existed. And it wasa bond that extended far beyond the bordersof a shared living space. We would havestayed together even without a marriage certificate. . . but I believed in the permanenceit represented.It was a piece of paper you could build a life on.”

“For I knew already that something had taken me from me, and had replaced it with a desperate longing for a time before; a time before fear; a time before shame. And now that knowledge had a voice that rose from the depths of my years and howled into the night sky like a wounded animal longing for home.”

“As I touched the beast I remembered how, even on that long-ago night, I could feel a tremendous thing moving in the depths below me, something vast and white and singing.”

“Hearing a crow with no mouthCry in the deepDarkness of the night,I feel a longing forMy father before he was born.”