"A mimosa represented chastity because the leaves of the mimosa close at night, or when touched. White carnation meant pure love and good luck, and a pink one, a mother’s undying love..."
"work is a place where some adolescents and most adults spent a good deal of their waking time doing specified tasks or acting in prescribed roles in order to earn money..."
"If you should ever miss me, take the boat. / If the boat is stalling, jump and fly. / May strong winds float you, levant kids. / I sing for quarters now, into my hat. / Nothing bad I’ve ever done has been without / melody..."
"Other like me has sky brightness. He showed me. It was like many sky brightnesses, but small. They are in a piece of hard ground. They move like sky brightness on water..."
"we have so many words / for the act of sifting one thing / from another / sift, sieve, sort, strain / how many of these words / are gentle and soft / in our mouths / thresh, sever, sunder, winnow..."