“My heart lost rhythm at the flicker of phantom in the whiskey-stained voice.”

“The angel destroyed me! He seduced me with a pure voice, spoke kind words, and stroked my hair to lower my guard, to make me trust him, to trick me! He sullied my body, my voice, my heart; remade me as a terrifying monster; turned me into his companion! The angel was a disfigured phantom wearing a mask!”

“If your heart is broken, do you have a phantom heart?”

“The city’s a heart, I said, and in that a heart and a city were sutured into a third thing, a heartish city, and cities are heart-stained, and hearts are city-stained too.”

“And the lost heart stiffens and rejoices in the lost lilac and the lost sea voices and the weak spirit quickens to rebel for the bent golden-rod and the lost sea smell quickens to recover.”

“My lips are fierce with passion. My heart spins fiery beats. A rhythm lives within my fingers and dances in my feet.”