Rita

“I believe the wound is also the place where the skin reencounters itself, asking of each end, where have you been?”
― Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

“Isn’t that the saddest thing in the world, Ma? A comma forced to be a period?”
― Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

“It's not fair that the word laughter is trapped inside slaughter.”
― Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

“I didn't know that would be the last time I'd see him, his neck scar lit blue by the diner's neon marquee. To see that little comma again, to put my mouth there, let my shadow widen the scar until, at last, there was no scar to be seen at all, just a vast and equal dark sealed by my lips. A comma superimposed by a period the mouth so naturally makes. Isn't that the saddest thing in the world, Ma? A comma forced to be a period?”
― Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous