ai

“Without thinking, I knelt in the grass, like someone meaning to pray.
When I tried to stand again, I couldn't move,
my legs were utterly rigid. Does grief change you like that?
Through the birches, I could see the pond.
The sun was cutting small white holes in the water.

I got up finally; I walked down to the pond.
I stood there, brushing the grass from my skirt, watching myself,
like a girl after her first lover
turning slowly at the bathroom mirror, naked, looking for a sign.
But nakedness in women is always a pose.
I was not transfigured. I would never be free. ”
― Louise Glück

“Maybe that was what true love meant: a bitterness that stayed on the tongue when everything else faded.”
― Zen Cho, Black Water Sister

“Don’t grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form.”
― Rumi

“Goodbye," said Siew Tsin.
"See you next time," said Lady Meng, more accurately.
"Will you remember me when I come again?"
"Of course," said Lady Meng. "I miss you every time.”
― Zen Cho, The Terracotta Bride