“If you love someone and they don't love you back, wait for them. If they still don't love you after waiting, they aren't really worth your time. Darn, why did I waste all that time waiting then?”

“I’d say that most of these [poems in Jason Mashak's book SALTY AS A LIP] are just straightforward enough, but not entirely explainable or attributable to a single cause/effect, which makes them the kind of poems I want to read many times… “Salty as a lip” is my favorite. It’s so alive: strange and human / earthy and raw. Mysterious but grounded. Mashak has manifested paradox, it seems. Bravo!”

“I don't know what day it is, I had to check the paperI don't know the city but it isn't homeYou say I'm lucky to love something that loves meBut I don't as I could be wherever I roamAll this time we were waiting for each otherAll this time I was waiting for youGot all these words, can't waste them on anotherSo I'm straight in a straight line running back to youAll this time we were waiting for each otherAll this time I was waiting for youGot all this love, can't waste it on anotherSo I'm straight in a straight line running back to youStraight in a straight line running back to you”

“I don't rememberlighting this cigaretteand I don't rememberif I'm here aloneor waiting for someone.”

“Why?” breathed Boy 412. “Why me?”“You have astonishing Magykal power. I told you before. Maybe now you’ll believe me.” She smiled.“I—I thought the power came from the ring.”“No. It comes from you. Don’t forget, the Dragon Boat recognized you even without the ring. She knew. Remember, it was last worn by Hotep-Ra, the first ExtraOrdinary Wizard. It’s been waiting a long time to find someone like him.”“But that’s because it’s been stuck in a secret tunnel for hundreds of years.”“Not necessarily,” said Marcia mysteriously. “Things have a habit of working out, you know. Eventually.”

“I don't consider myself a pessimist. I think of a pessimist as someone who is waiting for it to rain. And I feel soaked to the skin.”

“If you have to speculate if someone loves you and wants to be with you, chances are they don't. It's not that complicated. Love, in most cases, betrays the one feeling it. Don't waste moments waiting and wondering. Don't throw away your time dreaming of someone that doesn't want you. No one is that amazing, certainly not the one who would pass you up.”