Susan Sontag, As Consciousness Is Harnessed to Flesh: Journals and Notebooks, 1964-1980
Anna Akhmatova, tr. by Lenore Mayhew and William Mcnaughton, from Poem Without A Hero and Selected Poems; “In a dream”
i think my body is falling in pieces i think my blood is passing me by
Micah Nemerever These Violent Delights / I.B. Vyache Excerpt 07.01.21 / Silas Denver Melvin excerpt from Grit: A Poetry Collection / Christa Wolf excerpt from Cassandra: A Novel and Four Essays / Ethel Cain Family Tree (Intro) / unknown / Fiona Apple Left Alone / Richard Siken The Worm King's Lullaby / Gwen Benaway Holy Wild
i. Micah Nemerever, These Violent Nights
[ "I don't think you've ever felt anything that didn't hurt you. / We've found each other, out of everyone else in the world. Does that hurt, too?" ]
ii. I.B. Vyache, Excerpt 07.01.21
[ "It's time to forgive my hands for being hands. I'm going to hate myself a little less tomorrow. I'm going to hate myself a little less tomorrow." ]
iii. unknown
[ "have you shot a gun? is your blood authentic? is your blood authentic? is your blood authentic? can you prove it to me?" ]
iv. Christa Wolf, Cassandra: A Novel and Four Essays
[ "You looked at me / (did you still see me?)" ]
v. Ethel Cain, Family Tree (Intro)
[ "The fate's already fucked me sideways / Swinging by my neck from the family tree / He'll laugh and say, 'You know I raised you better than this' / Then leave me hanging so they all can laugh at me" ]
vi. unknown
[ "I fight. I resist. It doesn't even matter what I resist; there is simply something in me that tends to resist things as they are. I have been fighting since I was very small." ]
vii. Fiona Apple, Left Alone
[ "[Chorus] / How can I ask anyone to love me / When all I do is beg to be left alone?" ]
viii. Richard Siken, The Worm King's Lullaby
[ "Someone has to leave first. This is a very old story. There is no other version of this story." ]
ix. Gwen Benaway, Holy Wild
[ "I am tired of explaining the fire, / it burns because it must." ]
Elaine Castillo, America Is Not The Heart Jeanette Winterson, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit Ijeoma Umebinyuo, ‘Confessions’, Questions for Ada Mohamad Hafez, Baggage series Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited Anne Carson, ‘The Glass Essay’, Glass, Irony, and God Margaret Atwood, ‘November’, You Are Happy Richard Siken, ‘Boot Theory’, Crush
“question: how do you make a monster stop feeling so monstrous? you give her something she can hold in her palms without crushing. you give her something sweet and tell her to keep it. you wipe the blood from her hands. you say her name, over and over, like an absolution. you forgive her. you forgive her. you forgive.”
— whatever it takes
interview with the vampire, 1.07 + peter weiss (tr. james rolleston & kai evers) / noor shirazie / richard siken / laura van prooyen