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Your fingerprints keep dirtying me
and caressing me with false light.
I try to wash you out of me
but scrubbing only makes me bleed.

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If you’re a poetry addict like I am, you’re always craving creative bursts of inspiration wherever you go.

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Avis says that her heart is still in the late ’60s: “That’s where Germany’s at now, compared to the States . . . It could also be a problem of mine.”

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“I need you to be a monster / which is to say, I am trying not to love you / which is to say, I am still dreaming of kissing your claws.” — Fortesa Latifi

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Whether you like it or not, you will be the subject to a handful of their poems.

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“It would be a shame to look back on this and (out of bitterness) not call it love.” — Trista Mateer

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“How reckless, the way that I love
like the first chapter of a ghost story.
Like the gentlest hand
reaching out of a grave.”

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I lingered on the Columbia campus for a while, scribbling in my notebook on the steps of Low Library before going over to Hungry Mac’s to have dinner.

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“Fear, to a great extent, is born of a story we tell ourselves, and so I chose to tell myself a different story from the one women are told. I decided I was safe. I was strong. I was brave. Nothing could vanquish me.”

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The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.