KADEN

“I am the proud owner of a gaping hole in my soul.”
― Charlie Kaufman, Antkind

“The first time I found my brother
overdosed, he looked holy. A thing
not to be touched. Yellow halo of last
night's dinner. His skin, blanched blue
fresco: Patron Saint of Smack. A Cop,
flustered, tugged up his shorts, plunged
a needle into his pale thigh. He hissed
awake like a soda can. The paramedic
spoke slowly in his ear like a lover,
asked him what color yellow and red
make. What is the difference between
a lake and a river? In the corner I
whittle my brother's used syringe
into an instrument only I can play.”
― Steven Espada Dawson

“It was invented, of course, language. The first baby didn’t come out speaking Farsi or Arabic or English or anything. We invented it, this language where one man is called Iraqi and one man is called Iranian and so they kill each other. Where one man is called an officer so he sends other men, with heads and hearts the size of his own, to split their stomachs open over barbed wire. Because of language, this sound stands for this thing, that sound stands for that thing, all these invented sounds strutting around, certain as roosters. It is no wonder we got it so wrong.”
― Kaveh Akbar, Martyr!

“Nature held me close and seemed to find no fault with me.”
― Leslie Feinberg, Stone Butch Blues