“The thing about clowns? You never see them get back into the car.”

“They shared the commonalities of language and home”

“The stove needs to be checked thirty more times, or your mother will artlessly burst into flames.”

“I don’t love my body, and this makes me feel like I’m failing”

“The end results of human endeavors don’t often live up to expectations”

“She was sucking on her teeth and neglecting the ability to remember what skin was meant to feel like.”

“Nothing is free, least of all female sexuality”

“The anxiety that I felt over my gender identity was always latent, ready to present itself at a moment’s notice.”

“Petunia, like other scavengers, wasn’t afraid of a little biological warfare when her livelihood had been threatened.”

“I was 19, thought I was in love, knew I was in over my head”

“…I would empty my pockets to him, loose change jangling like the chain around my throat.”

“Somewhere near the shallow end, she saw his Band-Aid float to the bottom.”

“in the end coming into this world and leaving it is all bodies and blood, constricting, releasing, changing”

“The sting of lack on skin. Needling want.”

“She knew that one need not be deserving of cruelty to receive it.”

“Years later I finally reclaimed my pleasure for desire”

“peeling back the thick slab of skin and fat to reveal the red of her”

“A deep-rooted fear of abandonment and betrayal still lingers in my consciousness…”

“the way girls play war, with mysteries and clues and some magic.”

“…as I started to experience things like stalking…I learned to fear.”