I'm never going to get married." "You're crazy." Buddy brightened. "You'll change your mind." "No. My mind's made up.

There must be quite a few things that a hot bath won't cure, but I don't know many of them.

What did my arms do before they held you?

Sometimes I nursed starfish alive in jam jars of seawater and watched them grow back lost arms. On this day, this awful birthday of otherness, my rival, somebody else, I flung the starfish against a stone. Let it perish.

Although, I admit, I desire, Occasionally, some backtalk From the mute sky, I can't honestly complain: A certain minor light may still Lean incandescent Out of kitchen table or chair As if a celestial burning took Possession of the most obtuse objects now and then --

And so I rehabilitate myself - staying up late this Friday night in spite of vowing to go to bed early, because it is more important to capture moments like this, keen shifts in mood, sudden veering of direction - than to lose it in slumber.

If they substituted the word 'Lust' for 'Love' in the popular songs it would come nearer the truth.