THE SIGNS AS WHY YOU SHOULD READ LEFT*
LEFT (ANTHOLOGY) -- WE ARE BABIES
ARIES (dorothea laskey)
the day starts hot & it ends hot & with you kicking your blanket around. it’s hard for you to sleep without something covering you which is okay but forty percent of americans sleep without a flat sheet so what does that mean for you? but please, remember, sleeping is hard. please remember, living is hard. but people want to take care of you. “If I could have wrapped you in purple robes/ For the rest of my life/ I would have.” if you’ll let them. you have to let people in sometimes even if you are usually the one knocking.
TAURUS (sarah jean alexander)
everything is rushing for you & sometimes everything any color seems blue. you know that it is the most complex color, you know it has the most books written about it for a reason. it’s okay to submerge for a bit, but you can’t do that forever. “If I was the atmosphere I wouldn’t need to wear clothes, but if I was the atmosphere you wouldn’t know which end is my mouth.” you feel emotions big & everyone seems to think that means you feel them always & maybe they are right & maybe that’s okay for now. just let yourself breathe. just drink enough water.
GEMINI (carolyn decarlo)
“Don’t work against other wranglers who may cross your path. When you’re catching passenger trains, a couple of good wranglers working together can make for a quicker pull. You’d be better off working as a highwayman if you’re that worried about getting your share of the spoils, anyway. If you think of yourself as a solitary worker, well, that’s a different story. You might be suited for catching freighters after all.”
CANCER (dalton day)
it’s difficult to be around people all day. it is difficult to not lie down & cry for every injustice for every person. you are like this. you feel for everyone. but when it seems like the best option is to howl at the moon, remember that you are a dog person for a reason. remember that dogs are not people & you should reward them for that. “Even more are at the hospital, licking your wrists, wanting you to know that above all else, you mean them no harm.” you should reward yourself for being a person who loves & you should get yourself something sweet. you can share it with whoever you want. or you can keep it, all for you.
LEO (manuel arturo abreu)
you are not sure if you are finding god or if god is finding you & you are not sure that this isn’t all just a very vivid dream. but there she is, not nearly as ever present as you thought. just here to say hi. just here to say: keep doing what you’re doing! even if this is a dream you know things now. & for you, knowing is what makes ideas beliefs anyway. “People lock themselves away in their bodies and long to escape like butterflies. People are breathless and sugar-eyed.” keep doing what you’re doing!
VIRGO (bob schofield)
sometimes words are not enough. this is a hard realization to come to.
LIBRA (a.l. snijders)
“All I can do now is leave the arithmetic to the others. I must confine myself to the facts:” you have been focusing on the important things for too long. it’s tempting to always do this in the way it’s tempting for other people to never think about anything hard. but maybe you should take a page out of the book. maybe you should let yourself off the hook this time. yes, you fucked up. yes, it’s your fault. but something else will happen that isn’t your fault soon enough & you would never treat them the way you are treating yourself. you would be kind to them. you would assure them of your love.
SCORPIO (crispin best)
so you swam for ten years but it’s still not enough time. there are charts that show how much time the average human spends sitting at a stop light or on the toilet or basically anything asinine but there aren’t any charts for the amazing things we spend so much time doing. please make this chart, it will change lives. “i have crushed cans/ while thinking of you/ i have also cradled a croissant/ like a baby/ so” these are the types of things that matter.
SAGITARIUS (joshua jennifer espinosa)
you’ve been doing a lot of work on yourself lately & that’s the hardest kind of work. it’s work that eats at you, but it’s good & it made you feel better until it got to the point where it made you feel worse. but listen, “this room contains us because/ it has no choice/ we are mountains in it.” let yourself be a mountain. let yourself take up space. you have just gone down a long path & it extends a lot longer but that does not mean you aren’t allowed to stop for a snack. put your feet up. watch some netflix.
CAPRICORN (zarah butcher-mcgunnigle)
“Sometimes I walk backwards. Would you prefer if good things happened, or interesting things? Pain goes on and then goes.” it hurts & maybe it will always hurt. but you can do things outside of it. you can, i promise. you can post about it all on twitter. you will get so many faves.
AQUARIUS (kimmy walters)
it’s not that you don’t have the money to pay for the laundry machine it’s just that you hate carrying quarters. also, there’s a magic in putting your favorite jeans in the kitchen sink. you feel big when you squeeze the dirt out of them, when you place the stray hairs in the trash can. you do the job better than any machine. keep finding things like this. things that take up too much of your time, the way your grandmother likes your time spent. “i put them to bed while ambulences howl outside/ and then i touch their heads until morning”
PICES (hera lindsey bird)
if you keep standing in front of the fan like that you’ll get chapped lips. so when you try to kiss you’ll have to lick your lips first. that could be seen as erotic or as a little slimy. it depends on how you do it & who you’re kissing. listen to your gut on whether or not you should back away from the air blasting. “I should never do it— and nor should anyone/ but it’s boring to be so tasteful.” remember, if who you are kissing is you, the inside of your pointer finger, just to make sure you haven’t forgotten how, this is a form of self care.
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*some of these are the authors’ real signs & some of them aren’t, but all of them are true
**this review is limited by space & the zodiac
review by: isabelle davis