Jun 8, 2016
After the salt feast, I watched a bird peck at another bird who was already dead. . . .
After the salt feast, I watched a bird peck at another bird who was already dead.
What I know best is the color of sun through my own eyelids.
And like those jubilant saplings, I am always so breathless and ignorant.
I once fucked a man who was unspeakably ugly, and it wasn’t even winter.
What I mean is that I bludgeoned the palm fronds to keep from sobbing.
What I mean is that I lit a kite on fire and didn’t say I was sorry.
The gaze of the deer was nothing if not victorious.
I once loved a man who was married to a martyr.
No, he was married to a goat. No, he was married to ladder. What’s the difference?
I cried on a toilet in the middle of New York City. Four times in one day. I counted. I
promise.
That time I was stunned by my own pudendum. The smell.
Then I became ashamed of my shame, et cetera, infinity until the end of time itself.
The vulgarity of the orchid in all of its hooded glory is showy but exquisite.
The first time I ever came the light was weak and carnivorous.
I covered my eyes and the night cleared its dumb throat.
I heard my mother wringing her hands the next morning.
Of course I put my underwear on backwards. Of course the elastic didn’t work.
What I wanted most at that moment was a sandwich.
But I nursed on this leather whip as the sheets were splattered with my sadness.
...we need your help. Confronting the many challenges of COVID-19—from the medical to the economic, the social to the political—demands all the moral and deliberative clarity we can muster. In Thinking in a Pandemic, we’ve organized the latest arguments from doctors and epidemiologists, philosophers and economists, legal scholars and historians, activists and citizens, as they think not just through this moment but beyond it. While much remains uncertain, Boston Review’s responsibility to public reason is sure. That’s why you’ll never see a paywall or ads. It also means that we rely on you, our readers, for support. If you like what you read here, pledge your contribution to keep it free for everyone by making a tax-deductible donation.
June 08, 2016
Copyright © 1993-2020 Boston Review and its authors.
Printing Note: For best printing results try turning on any options your web browser's print dialog makes available for printing backgrounds and background graphics.
Join the conversation
Confronting the challenges of this moment demands all the moral and deliberative clarity we can muster. While much remains uncertain, Boston Review’s responsibility to public reason is sure. Sign up for our newsletters and don’t miss a thing.
