I wish I could close my eyes and be blown into dust and nothingness, feel all my thoughts disperse like dandelion fluff drifting off on the wind. But his hands keep pulling me back: into the alley, and Portland, and a world that has suddenly stopped making sense.

willing me to understand: that people should be sacrificed to causes, that beauty can be built on the backs of the dead.

We can never understand. We can only try, fumbling our way through the tunneled places, reaching for light.

The salt blowing off the sea makes the air feel textured and heavy.

You came form different starts and you'll come to different ends.

I'll find you," he says, watching me with the eyes I remember. "I won't let you go again

Everyone just wasting time because they have so much of it to waste, minutes slipping by on who's with who and did you hear.