Ahmed

“225 days under grass
and you know more than I.
they have long taken your blood,
you are a dry stick in a basket.
is this how it works?
in this room
the hours of love
still make shadows.

when you left
you took almost
everything.
I kneel in the nights
before tigers
that will not let me be.

what you were
will not happen again.
the tigers have found me
and I do not care.”
― Charles Bukowski, The Days Run Away Like Wild Horses Over the Hills

“I saw a number of Adult pictures long before I was an adult, but no one ever questioned my age. I was quite fat by this time and all fat women look the same, they all look forty-two. Also, fat women are not more noticeable than thin women; they’re less noticeable, because people find them distressing and look away. To the ushers and the ticket sellers I must’ve appeared as a huge featureless blur. If I’d ever robbed a bank no witness would have been able to describe me accurately.”
― Margaret Atwood, Lady Oracle

“Pain cannot be kept intact, it needs to be “processed,” converted into humor.”
― Annie Ernaux, I Remain in Darkness

“To exist is to drink oneself without thirst.”
― Annie Ernaux, Les Années