X: You’re not as invincible as you pretend to be.
Y: I’m not pretending.
X: You forget, I’ve seen you curled up in the darkest corners of your life.
“The possibilities that exist between two people, or among a group of people, are a kind of alchemy. They are the most interesting thing in life… It isn’t that to have an honorable relationship with you, I have to understand everything, or tell you everything at once, or that I can know, beforehand, everything I need to tell you. It means that most of the time I am eager, longing for the possibility of telling you… That we both know we are trying, all the time, to extend the possibilities of truth between us. The possibility of life between us.”
–Adrienne Rich, On Lies, Secrets and Silence
X: You’re not as invincible as you pretend to be.
Y: I’m not pretending.
X: You forget, I’ve seen you curled up in the darkest corners of your life.
Looking up at the stars, I know quite well
That, for all they care, I can go to hell,
But on earth indifference is the least
We have to dread from man or beast.
When out in this city, or that one across the bay, I would often think, “These bloody homeless people everywhere all the time…”
Sometimes I still do.
Especially on the train when all I want is peace:
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.