Zehra Naqvi, From The Knot Of My Tongue: Poems And Prose; “Grocery Shopping”

am I really that hard to love

bitch this is all you’re gonna get. this life, this face, this body. you better not ‘maybe in another universe’ your way out of everything. sit your ass down and face this. go make tea and have a picnic and read a goddamn book. kiss your loved ones, send that damn text, and hug your siblings. this is all you’re gonna get.

And then she said

"But I am homesick for arms that have never held me."

John Doe, from the movie "The Wedding Date"

"The Brothers Karamazov", Fyodor Dostoevsky (translated by Constance Garnett)

I can feel that ache in my chest again.

Yeah now we've entered the back pain stage

Madison Julius Cawein, “Dusk In The Woods”