—DON’T FORGET TO COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS

...Hey, Friday. I hope you’re feeling more optimistic than I am.

No matter, here are some things I like for the weekend…

 “The only thing we never get enough of is love; and the only thing we never give enough of is love.” Henry Millers

“It doesn’t feel good to know your fear outweighs your need.” Danez Smith

"For one human being to love another: that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation.” Rilke

“We do the best with what we are given, and gratitude is a mental habit, a harbor, a respite.” Alina Stefanescu

“I know what it is to nurse the thing you want to kill but can’t.” Danez Smith

“What if it's not meant for me...love?” Wolf Alice, “Don’t Delete The Kisses”

“Yeah, personal growth is cool, but have you tried being crushed under the weight of your unexamined prejudices?” CL Bledsoe

“Love makes the truth bearable.” Russell Johnson

“You get stirred up when you hang around people who speak your language.” Russell Johnson

“If you are silent about your pain, they’ll kill you and say you enjoyed it.” Zora Neale Hurston

“Your mind is indeed tired. Your mind is so tired that it can no longer work at all. You do not think. You dream. Dream all day long. Dream everything. Dream maliciously and incessantly. Don’t you know that by now?”  Patrick Hamilton

“How does one tell impossible stories?” Saidiya Hartman

“It’s taken me a while to realize I’m not interested in fame or notoriety. I don’t work hard enough toward those things. What I’m really interested in is beauty, and its obstacles.” Ruth Ellen Kocher

“Everything is impossible until they happen.” Joseph Mandella

...On friends' FBK feeds of late:

-NEWSPAPER HEADLINE: Bar Called ‘The Clitoris’ Closes After Men Unable To Find It

-What did the sushi say to the bumble bee?

Wasabi!

-I wish there was a “You’re going to have a shitty day” early warning system. I would’ve just stayed in bed.’

…This won the Oscar for Animated Short Film, and I love it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNw8V_Fkw28

…Lastly, there’s this, which I also love:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jD8tjhVO1Tc

—I DON’T WANNA BE MY OWN WORST ENEMY

                                                   Junk Mail

I find you in the last folder, stuck between monotony and monogamy. The pagan in me holds your long O sounds up to my lips so as to lick your inner circles. If you tasted more like butterscotch, we could have hope or a child with all its fingers and peppermint freckles. Who was it that made you so pixeled? And when did your keyboard teeth become so shiny and unpredictable? Never mind. The walls are popping. Some mailman’s set the kitchen on fire. And me? I’m late for the execution.

—THERE’S JUST SOMETHING ABOUT IT THAT FREAKS ME OUT

                                                         Blur

Another crow crashes into my dizzy window. There must be hundreds. Of reasons. So many pillows to fluff. Rip to pieces. Someone downstairs is making a case. Someone outside is casting in an alley. It could be the neighbor mispronouncing detritus. Fondling a niece or nephew. Another man down the street has his eye on unprotected sex. Transferring secrets between his pants pockets. I don’t trust the sidewalk to tell me where I am. If it’s a fever I’m wearing, I’ll send out for another rolodex. I’ll love whatever is unrecognizable or ashen. Faded newsprint. The scorched earth. But never you.