"This is localism, I think, the way the sound of the plot traverses the valley with its many hands, the way these ruptures slow time to a treacly syrup."

"Each devotee orients towards the same physical and spiritual point: beautiful alone, resplendent together."

"What becomes of prayer then when the reasons why we pray bring attention to loss?"

"I never meant to create these videos. They emerged as I attempted to express myself through art during times of profound suffering."

"The censer holds nothing but moonlight, / prayers risen songs ago. Now, only laughter holds you."

"Agatha refused to fuck a magistrate, so he imprisoned her in a brothel."

"We all had something to pray for."

"When I told Singapore / I wanted men, my name / discreetly on my chest, / no one gasped."

"Welcome to the next forty years of womanhood, my aunts echoed. Every decade, an unveiled burden."

"My brutal love / is all, a quiet meadow of violet promise. I'm so scared / as I watch the world dare you to live."

"December, 2017; I tell a boy with low self-esteem that I love him 'unconditionally' and now I have to prove it."

"Do they have any idea / what is it to be a hero? Of / chattering bones and burning flesh?"

"The first sign of life is the ability to /64 65 6E 79. The second is /regret"

"Most bookworms have lived the image: bedtime, the encompassing covers, a flashlight sparking a world."