Isa: Stay Hungry.

Jake: You can’t set all your problems on fire.

Isa: You’d be surprised by how many things are flammable.

Jake: What is the definition of love?

Isa: Love is a good deal. Bargain shopping for ice cream.

Jake:

Isa: Or escaping from communist China. Either way works fine.

Kai: uh oh

Jake: what?

Kai: someone’s in love

Jake: yeah, right. I just think Isa’s cool. It’s not like I lay awake at night thinking of her.

Jake, later that night: oh no.

Isa: Jake, what is it called when you can’t sleep at night?

Jake: Depression, obviously.

Isa: Was it not Insomnia?

Jake: They changed it this year.

This is the same thing over and over again. Palestinians die every day, but it gets a lukewarm headline from mainstream media because death and destruction is inherent to Arabness. Then an aid convoy with white workers is obliterated, and now both the president of the United States and the president of Israel are making statements apologizing for “the poor protection of aid workers.” At one point we were seeing multiple reports a day of paramedics from the Palestine Red Crescent Society dying, but nothing. Crickets. Because they don’t care. And even in these “remorseful statements” there is a strategic reminder that white lives hold more weight than brown lives.

Jake: Being half asleep and feeling someone gently plant a kiss on your forehead is one of the purest kinds of love in the world.

Isa: Unless you're home alone.

Isa: You’re not perfect.

Isa: But those tiny imperfections are what make you flawless.

Jake, about Isa: I do sort of like it when she's rude to me. Hopefully that's more of a psychological defect than a weird sexual thing.

Isa: Hey Jake I donated all your books to the library.

Jake: But why would you do that?

Isa: So that you don’t get bored there.

constellations of stars, murals on city walls

i don’t see nobody but you

you’re my vice, you’re my muse

you’re the nineteenth floor view

i don’t see nobody but you