R-u-maysa

bitch this is all you’re gonna get. this life, this face, this body. you better not ‘maybe in another universe’ your way out of everything. sit your ass down and face this. go make tea and have a picnic and read a goddamn book. kiss your loved ones, send that damn text, and hug your siblings. this is all you’re gonna get.

Belly to the Brutal, Jennifer Givhan

btw you will miss this in 5 or 10 years. memory will smooth these circumstances down like a river stone, and you will find yourself longing for a shade of light or a moment of this particular innocence. you don't know about what happens next, and one day that will be the most alluring thing of all. don't leave it all for nostalgia. have a nice night now, whatever night it happens to be.

Fariha Róisín, How to Cure a Ghost

Peter De Potter, A Spartan for a Single Bed, erotic zine, issue 3, published november 2024, limited edition

www.peterdepotterindex.com

أَلل‍ّٰه‍ُـــــمَّ إني اسألك حسن الخاتمة

O Allah, I ask you for a good ending...

Kaveh Akbar

“Be a good listener. Your ears will never get you in trouble.”

— Frank Tyger

“APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding / Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing / Memory and desire, stirring / Dull roots with spring rain.”

— T. S. Eliot, from “The Wasteland,” in Selected Poems

from Simone Weil’s Pre-War Notebook