“My dream life started in L.A.’s concrete world.”

“My grandmother died the day / the missionaries came for our souls.”

“Maybe a spark jumped, but there is no name / for the god of fragments—there was just a fire I believed in.”

“Who could care about the probability of love when brought, like us, to this / world under endless darkness?”

“The third virtual meeting was cancelled, and, a day later, scaffolding went up.”

“Her husband has to frown because he notices his wife frown and because all the members of his family, it seems to him, are acting sad or are actually sad.”

“I knew the couple must have liked each other. They stared like children and kissed on the corners of their lips, and I knew.”

“She wanted to feel sorry for the neighbor and say how horrible it was and how she must have really been suffering, but all that came out was anger.”

“Of course, Arlette understood, this was not a tragedy. Tragedy would be a broken neck or spine. Paralysis for life. A coma.”

“It’s time to turn up the heat a little bit more. My boys are getting bored, and that’s not good for their appetite or their temper.”

“He got out of the car, closing his door quietly, and crept through the woods toward the brick house.”

“Why was Bree the bad apple? The one needing to be banished? How could a girl of fourteen be the one held responsible?”