In The Direction Of You Quotes

“I never gave you a chance to set fire to the dry tinder of my heart
did it myself
doused myself in gasoline, went searching for a match
I found it in her
a familiar beast of whiskey and jealousy”
― Stephanie Greene

“and at the end of decades
there they are
tea splashing clove strong from chipped cups
long skirts swaying around ankles
giggling from folding chairs in the town square
singing along
dancing to the didgeridoo
a joint passing between their smeared pink lips
leaning safe into the only arms they’ve ever trusted
all the way to the goddamn end”
― Stephanie Greene

“when they tell you god spoke the world into being
they mean Eve moaned from the earth
red clay under her fingernails
Lilith’s road wrapped all around her like smoke in the air and
bigfuckingbang
there it all was”
― Stephanie Greene

“and it all comes down to this
a gospel written in the living
an incantation we pass hand to hand
soul to soul
it’s this
if you do nothing other than run
run in the direction of you”
― Stephanie Greene

“if you haven’t had to
you won’t ever understand how brutal
how ugly
how devastating it is to leave
or that it would have been worse to stay”
― Stephanie Greene

“one summer hornets made a nest deep in the garage and my aunt said we’d have to empty the whole thing in order to find where they were coming from
my grandfather refused
and I don’t think I need to say too much in order for you to understand that he wasn’t willing to empty the container of his body either
he would rather let a threat linger between tightly packed muscles if it meant he never had to pull the pain out
stack it in the driveway
let the neighbors and god catch a glimpse
or, sweet baby Jesus, ever send someone in to smoke out the harm”
― Stephanie Greene

“Another life could have happened to us. I know you know that.
But here we are, still a flame held close to untouched lips. And I’ll write a dozen different endings before I’m done.”
― Stephanie Greene

“the last little orb winks behind our mountain
Venus peeking one eye over her shoulder
I boil water, you dice mushrooms for the sauce
remember all the poems we wrote when we were young, I say
always about that thin crack between day and night
I write you another one right there in the kitchen
for old times sake
and butter melts on the table
old witches know what that means
out in the middle of nowhere”
― Stephanie Greene

“I was always wild territory buried below manicured lawns
and once I had ripped pretty flowers from the careful parts of me
unearthed
keening
once I left the whole damn thing open to the sky
I touched a place in me too Wild to ever pull weeds again
or water plastic grass again
or prop the baby tree with sticks again
or call my soul cultivated again
I was never going down that way”
― Stephanie Greene