When you traffic in monsters, that's the risk you run, that you'll find one too monstrous to stomach.

Shhhhhh, shhhhhh, says the sea, but I don't believe her.

It was mint and memories and the past and the future and she felt as if she’d done this before and already she longed to do it again.

I’m not looking for self-control.

Grace: The idea was immediately unbearable, only because I wanted it to be true so badly it hurt

Cole made a hissing sound. "Are you inside yet? God bless America and all her sons. What is taking you so long?" The front door was locked. "Here, talk to Grace" "Mommy isn't going to give a different answer than Daddy," Cole said, but I handed her the phone anyway.

Afterward, Isabel drove me home and I shut myself in the study with Rilke, and I read and I wanted. And leaving you (there arent words to untangle it) Your life, fearful and immense and blossoming, So that, sometimes frustrated, and sometimes understanding Your life is sometimes a stone in you, and then, a star I was beginning to undertand poetry.