Jack Keane

“I'm dead if I'm not wired
Crucified if not proclaimed
Cut off if not in contact
Devoid of soul if not ashamed
Terminal if not content
Last in line if not number one
Sorrowful if not elated
All is lost if all's not won
Eternal tipping of the scales
They fail to balance out
Doomed to drown in rushing floods
Or perish in a drought”
― Ani Baker, Handsome Vanilla

“Nibiru, are you around here? Come." Sometimes, he envisioned spoken words in his head as though they were printed in the air and he saw this word - come - all lower case letters in size 9 font. No exclamation point, perhaps two of those wavy dashes on either side, signifying impotence. He was too ashamed to shout without company, nobody there to give him permission to disturb the night's peace, nobody to cushion the blow of odd glances if a person saw him and thought his actions peculiar.”
― Ani Baker, Handsome Vanilla

“He rolled his window back up and turned off the radio, thinking about all the other possible lives that he would never be challenged to live.”
― Ani Baker, Handsome Vanilla

“I tell ya, the live ones put more death in the place than the dying. In the time I was there. I watched my grandma try to tell the same story three times to two nurses and one doctor and she was told to stop talking each time. She'd barely get two sentences out before they'd shush her. She's dying. Silence won't save her, let her talk.”
― Ani Baker, Handsome Vanilla