Sublime

Each day, Shukumar noticed, her beauty, which had once overwhelmed him, seemed to fade. The cosmetics that had seemed superfluous were necessary now, not to improve her but to define her somehow.

tenuous

And we knew it would only be a matter of time until all traces of us were gone.

daughter? Was she the bird trying to batter its way free, or was she the cage?

The large room smelled powerfully of bodies and hot food.

There was the yeasty smell of wet men.

Dinnertime comes and goes, but none of them can imagine eating. It seems like something only people in films do, something lovely and decorative, that whole act of raising a fork to your mouth. Some kind of purposeless ceremony. The phone does not ring.

apricots

Thom Jones