“However Bush came to have won, he would still be winning ten days later and we would still be in the throes of our American optimism.” – Claudia Rankine, ‘Don’t Let Me Be Lonely’

“In the beginning everyone looked like Larry Bird / but everyone did not have the name Larry Bird / & this was confusing. Everyone had a headache” – Mathias Svalina, “Creation Myth”

“Frantic prams. / Romantic oblivion. // He heard a crash / and blamed himself. // Nice hat. / Thanks. // The blue umbrella / walks alone.” – Joshua Beckman and Matthew Rohrer, from ‘Nice Hat. Thanks.’

“Throughout history, I bet every old man probably said the same thing. Old men die, and the world keeps spinning.” – Marty Hart, ‘True Detective’

One last desperately insistent ICYMI

“The snow and snow. / This evening would have / The great moon of December.” – Matsuo Basho

“O saviors of prickly heat! what from / ‘Keats’ you O nut shoe bandboxing surface” – Kenneth Koch, “When The Sun Tries To Go On”

“There are places where cops are not hated, Captain. But in those places you wouldn’t be a cop.” – Raymond Chandler, ‘The Long Goodbye’

“What do you have to write about? You’re not oppressed, you’re not gay! [Writers] are all poor, I can tell ya that!” – John Lithgow, ‘Orange County’ (2002)

“I have loved you like darkness loves the base of a throat yet songs I could sing for you won’t come. City of Lou Malnati’s and Giordano’s,” – Phillip B. Williams, “Declaration”