NIGHT SKY WITH EXIT WOUNDS SENTENCE STARTERS.
all text taken from the poetry book night sky with exit wounds by ocean vuong.
‘ in the body, where everything has a price, i was a beggar. ‘
‘ he was singing, which is why i remember it. his voice — it filled me to the core like a skeleton. ‘
‘ even my name knelt down inside me, asking to be spared. ‘
‘ it is all i remember. ‘
‘ i was alive. i didn’t know there was a better reason. ‘
‘ i lost it all with my eyes wide open. ‘
‘ do you know who i am? ‘
‘ how easily a boy in a dress the red of shut eyes vanishes beneath the sound of his own galloping. ‘
‘ i’m dreaming of a curtain of snow falling from her shoulders. ‘
‘ snow scraping against the window. snow shredded with gunfire. red sky. ‘
‘ show me how ruin makes a home out of hip bones. ‘
‘ let every river envy our mouths. let every kiss hit the body like a season. ‘
‘ if you must know anything, know that the hardest task is to live only once. ‘
‘ if we make it to shore, i will name our son after this water. i will learn to love a monster. ‘
‘ he laughs despite knowing he has ruined every beautiful thing just to prove beauty cannot change him. ‘
‘ hey! you didn’t have to go this far. why did you go so far? ‘
‘ sometimes i feel like an ampersand. ‘
‘ everyone can forget us — as long as you remember. ‘
‘ i hold the gun & wonder if an entry wound in the night would make a hole as wide as morning. ‘
‘ there’s a lighthouse. some nights you are the lighthouse, some nights the sea. ‘
‘ what this means is that i don’t know desire other than the need to be shattered & rebuilt. ‘
‘ even tomorrow you will have today. ‘
‘ you’ll never forget yourself the way god forgets his hands. ‘
‘ the body is a blade that sharpens by cutting. ‘
‘ my mother said i could be anything i wanted — but i chose to live. ‘
‘ i am ready to be every animal you leave behind. ‘
‘ and this is how we loved: a fifth of vodka and an afternoon in the attic, your fingers though my hair — my hair a wildfire. ‘
‘ when our lips touched the day closed into a coffin. ‘
‘ the year is a distance we’ve traveled in circles. ‘
‘ we made it, baby. we’re riding in the back of the black limousine. ‘
‘ i love my country. i pretend nothing is wrong. ‘
‘ i’m holding your still-hot thoughts in, darling, my sweet, sweet ___. ‘
‘ you want to tell him it’s okay that the night is also a grave we climb out of. ‘
‘ you say thank you thank you thank you because you haven’t learned the purpose of forgive me. ‘
‘ you’re so quiet you’re almost tomorrow. ‘
‘ to love another man — is to leave no one behind to forgive me. i want to leave no one behind. ‘
‘ even though he’s gone, i still want to be clean. ‘
‘ if only the rain were gasoline, your tongue a lit match, & you can change without disappearing. ‘
‘ he dies each night you close your eyes & hear his slow exhale. ‘
‘ wait, i have something to say. ‘
‘ as if my finger, tracing your collarbone behind closed doors, was enough to erase myself. ‘
‘ to forget we built this house knowing it won’t last. ‘
‘ it’s funny. i always knew i’d be warmest beside by man. ‘
‘ don’t laugh. just tell me the story again. ‘
‘ speak — until your voice is nothing but the crackle of charred bones. ‘
‘ look how happy we are to be no one & still american. ‘
‘ i’ll tell you how we’re wrong enough to be forgiven/ ‘
‘ say you’d kill for it. ‘
‘ don’t we touch each other just to prove we are still here? ‘
‘ silly me. i thought love was real and the body imaginary. ‘
‘ i said yes because you asked me to stay. ‘
‘ there is so much i want to tell you. how my greatest accolade was to walk across the brooklyn bridge & not think of flight. ‘
‘ you will always remember what you were doing when it hurts the most. ‘
‘ dearest father, forgive me for i have seen. ‘
‘ once, i fell in love during a slow-motion car crash. ‘
‘ i wrote a better hour onto the page & watched the fire take it back. ‘
‘ this means you are not alone. ‘
‘ don’t stay here. don’t cry anymore. ‘
‘ i promise to stop soon. ‘
‘ how come depression makes me feel more alive? ‘
‘ i shouldn’t have, but he had the hands of someone i used to know. someone i was used to. ‘
‘ i dreamed i walked barefoot all the way to your house in the snow. everything was the blue of smudged ink and you were still alive. ‘
‘ here. that’s all i wanted to be. ‘
‘ don’t worry. your father is only your father until one of you forgets. ‘
‘ the end of the road is so far ahead it is already behind us. ‘
‘ don’t be afraid, the gunfire is only the sound of people trying to live a little longer & failing. ‘
‘ remember, loneliness is still time spent with the world. ‘
‘ the difference between prayer & mercy is how you move the tongue. ‘
‘ so what if my feathers are burning. i never asked for flight. ‘