…their hidden aptitudes unlocked
only by time and the heat of a burbling mélange;
(Rita Dove, Soup)
sharp, of course. more variously:
crisp or peircing, clean or fuzzy.
(RD, The Terror and the Pity)
Five p.m. I never thought
I’d find relief
in the old joke that it’s always darkest
before it goes pitch black,
but at least then
it will be dark and then
thank god, black.
(RD, No Color)
“It could not be predicted. The condition had a name, the kind of name usually associated with telethons, but the name meant noting … (Joan Didion, The white Album)
Illness is the most heeded of doctors: to goodness, to wisdom, we only make promises; pain we obey. (Marcel Proust, Cities of the Plain)
