“At first, heartbreak made me beautiful. My skin fluoresced. I hypnotized trees. The orphans followed me around town, drunk on my pain. I ate only my own hunger, gave off a scent like bitter oranges or chlorine. Loss left me strangely whole, as if my sadness, were it strong enough, could turn your ship around. That was back when I aged. Now, like an astronomer who seeks no first causes, but only to map the connections pinned out over the sea, I want to diagram the light that shines out through the holes you pricked into me.”
— Maureen Thorson, from Applies to Oranges (via lifeinpoetry)
