Refraction

She was a prism
though which
sadness
could be
divided
into its
infinite
spectrum.

— Jonathan Safran Foer, "Everything Is Illuminated"

Commandment

She told him that she wished
there were another commandment,
an eleventh etched into the tablets:
Do not change.
--Jonathan Safran Foer, "Everything Is Illuminated"

End

The end of the world has come often,
and continues to often come.
Unforgiving, unrelenting,
bringing darkness upon darkness,
the end of the world is something
we have become well acquainted with,
habitualized, made into a ritual.

It is our religion
to try to forget it
in its absence, make peace
with it when it is undeniable,
and return its embrace
when it finally comes for us,
as it always does.

-- Jonathan Safran Foer, "Everything Is Illuminated"

Happy

The secret was a hole
in the middle of me
that every happy thing fell into.
-- Jonathan Safran Foer, "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close"

Sing

"Why do beautiful songs make you sad?"
"Because they aren't true."
"Never?"
"Nothing is beautiful and true."
-- Jonathan Safran Foer, "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close"