Twisted among itself, dry and crackling underfoot like the bare bones of anemones, catching your throat in its thick vines, darkness overtaking in broad daylight under certain copses and bramble-thickets,

If you can imagine anything more beautiful than a swan with a broken neck, please tell me while you are awake. Behind every classic image of beauty lies something sinister. Yes, you know it well: monotony.

"I want you to know, I'm very unhappy." His hand paused for a moment before mopping up egg yolk with a biscuit. "Unhappy?" He turned on his bar stool to look directly into my eyes.

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The gliding sound of a translucent page being turned. Her straight back, even after two hours sitting on hard wood. Her peachskin earlobes, free of adornment. The simple chestnut braid trailing down her

With one foot tucked neatly into their feathers and the other submerged in chilly rapids, herons always seemed more at home in the river than I felt while admiring them on my cycling trips. On days without

Display a scar like a badge; bury a corpse in a hush. I first thought this was a contradiction. In many minds, to survive an emotionally or physically arduous ordeal is cause for pride, yet suicide, barring