Melty Melty

“Acquainted with the Night

I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain—and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light.

I have looked down the saddest city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.

I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet
When far away an interrupted cry
Came over houses from another street,

But not to call me back or say good-bye;
And further still at an unearthly height,
One luminary clock against the sky

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
I have been one acquainted with the night.”
― Robert Frost, West-Running Brook

“Infecting each other like this is how we maintain ourselves as human is what I think.”
― Sayaka Murata, Convenience Store Woman

“It's not a matter whether they permit it or not. It's what I am.”
― Sayaka Murata, Convenience Store Woman

“My mother, sleeping.
Curled up like a spring fern
although she’s almost a century.

She’s dreaming, however.
I can tell by the way she’s frowning,
and her strong breathing.

Maybe she’s making her way
down one more white river,
or walking across the ice.

There are no more adventures for her
in the upper air, in this room
with her bed and the family pictures.

Let’s go out and fight the storm,
she used to say. So maybe
she’s fighting it.”
― Margaret Atwood, Dearly: Poems