Life isn’t worth living if you’re scared all the time. -Jordan

Some peopleAre worthy of a bullet straightto the heart because that is wherecruelty evolves into evil.Somehumans aren’t human at all,despite how they appear.Humanity is what lives insidepeople,harbored beneath skin, flesh,and bone.

Red FoxThe red fox crosses the iceintent on none of my business.It’s winter and slim pickings.I stand in the bushy cemetery,pretending to watch birds,but really watching the foxwho could care less.She pauses on the sheer...

Remembering that only a few years ago men, women, and even children, were imprisoned, tortured and burned, for having expressed in an exceedingly mild and gentle way, the ideas entertained by me, I congratulate myself...

I felt angry, frustrated.I felt I didn’t belong, not in my,church, not in my home, not in my skin.

A Sad ChildYou’re sad because you’re sad.It’s psychic. It’s the age. It’s chemical.Go see a shrink or take a pill,or hug your sadness like an eyeless dollyou need to sleep.Well, all children are sadbut some...

It wasn’t so much that Lola Plum believed she’d learned her lesson in love. Lola Plum was just realistic about life.

Honesty. Sobriety. My virginity. No way to regain the first two, I almost gave away the last.

The Loneliness of the Military HistorianConfess: it’s my professionthat alarms you.This is why few people ask me to dinner,though Lord knows I don’t go out of my way to be scary.I wear dresses of sensible...

Looks delicious,” he lied. “A mite crispy along the edges – but then, I like it that way.”Incredulous eyes met his own. “You like your potatoes burned?”Ah, so he’d been right about that. If he...

Everything that has ever been beautiful has been burned. Like you.

Helen of Troy Does Counter DancingThe world is full of womenwho’d tell me I should be ashamed of myselfif they had the chance. Quit dancing.Get some self-respectand a day job.Right. And minimum wage,and varicose veins,...

I’m up for the Julius Caesar Author of the Year Award this year. I’m tremendously proud, considering Caesar is the guy who burned down the Library of Alexandria.

A fire, if it is large enough, is not easily contained. Sparks fly out, and the wind carries them in all directions. Like its brothers, the fire…in Mirusia’s heart spewed forth sparks, and, without her...

To carry a secret is to play with fire. Try to pass it on and you’d risk hurting someone else. Hold on to it and eventually you’d get burned.

Not enough youths fighting windmills. And the old are fearful, jaded or dead. Do not ask me what to do. I am just as cowardly as you. And do not tell me it is enough...

Pepperonis are like edible polkadots. I made you a pizza dress, but I’m ashamed to admit I burned it. I’m afraid you’ll have to dance naked.

I got the nickname Spitfire for a reason – I burned inside to play volleyball.

Oh for craps sake. You’re not dying again, are you? It’s seriously inconvenient when you do that.” -Aphrodite

I’m sorry, Mamma,” I whisper to the shell in front of me. I take her hand. It could belong to a glass doll. There’s no life there anymore. So I gather rocks, one by one,...

Und was passiert, wenn du nicht mehr da bist, um […] mich immer daran zu erinnern, wie ein Zuhause ist?

In choosing a hypothesis there is no virtue in being timid. I clearly would have been burned at the stake in another age.

No, Kramisha, he’s not black. He’s a killer bird with evil for his Daddy.

What about stakes in the heart?” I asked now. He frowned, the center of his mouth pursed while its corners curled downward. “Anyone will die from a stake in the heart,” he said. “And anyone...

Hurt. Enough to want to make someone else hurt too.

Girl Without HandsWalking through the ruinson your way to workthat do not look like ruinswith the sunlight pouring overthe seen worldlike hail or meltedsilver, that brightand magnificent, each leafand stone quickened and specific in it,and...