--I NEED A SMALL DARK CLOSET WHERE I CAN HUDDLE 


...This is all we ever talk about.

...Just off the center of the center is where most of the precious things are hiding.  Right...about....there.

...It's just that everything feels like it's on the periphery.

...That crocodile's looking at you, baby.  That crocodile is thinking: mmmm.

...One thing is not like the other--so simple, so trite, so true.

...It happens like this, the start that gets too much attention.

..."Fuck you, leave me alone."  This is how fear can sometimes sound.  Or it can be love turned inside out.

...For reasons still unknown, I have the world's ugliest toes.  I do.  Have I confessed this before?  Mine are hideous.  If you were to see them, they might make you gag.  When you are just the least bit of a runner, it's inevitable that your toenails will, at some point, swell up like mini rhinos.  The old and new and bruised blood gets pinched under the nails so that, after some time, they resemble a jagged set tortoise shell teeth.  I suppose a good pedicure is in order, but I'm ticklish there.

...We've talked about this before but your attention may have been elsewhere at the time.

...What makes people good communicators is, in essence, an ability not to be fazed by the more problematic or offbeat aspects of one's own character.

...Were I less afraid of my own mind, I might be able to square up to myself.  I can be a little tricky to be around, after all.

...Things would be better for everyone involved if we all just gave each other the benefit of the doubt instead of rushing to the worst conclusions possible.

...We don't need to be perfectly reasonable in order to have a good relationship, just the occasional capacity to acknowledge that we may, in one or two areas, be somewhat crazy.

...A lack of respect is one of the greatest slights ever--a long blade thrust hard, and deep, with abandon.

...The world disappoints, frustrates and hurts us in countless ways, at every turn.  And almost invariably we can't complain about any of it.  It's too difficult to tease out who may really be at fault, and after all, playing the blame game never solved anything.

...It is, of course, the height of absurdity to rewrite history, to create alternative facts in order to make our position look or feel better.

...Being scared almost always means you care.  And getting pissed--on occasion, for the right reasons, isn't so wrong--it means you give a shit. 

...It was different growing up.  We were poor.  We didn't feel we had anything to lose.  Humility and shame were the cousins I knew best.  Selling produce from our backyard outside of the hardware store, shouting out, "Cucumbers!  Cucumbers!  Ten cents each!" while kids from school strode by snickering--it wasn't even a thing that stuck to you more than a minute or two.

...When someone says, "So what the fuck did you think of that?" you pay attention and answer slowly.

...To love is to enter into the inevitability of one day not being able to protect what is most valuable to you.

...As usual, disasters attract the most attention. 

...It takes a certain strength to cry, more so than cauterizing your wounds.

...It's late and dark and windy and a bug or small bird or stone just slammed into the window in front of me.  At this hour, that can scare the shit out of a person.

....It's no prize if you win and the ticket isn't validated.  An unvalidated ticket--let me tell you, that is no fun.

...This is all it comes down to--we're staring at the same moon, or we will stare at it at some point, maybe even at the exact same time, and we will think similar thoughts, and we will let down our guard and be honest and vulnerable, because, after all, it's the moon we're talking about, and as everyone knows the moon is one of the best, most reliable friends ever.  She's a great secret keeper, if that's what you need.  She has HUGE ears and she's patient if you tend to be long-winded in your story-telling or confessions.  I'm telling you, the moon is something else.  She's always there when you need her.  Especially when the grubby night will not let you sleep.