1. it was my first cigarette in weeks that i hadn’t found half-smoked on the asphalt and it still tasted like something leftover from somewhere i don’t belong; its smoke drifted through the evening city mist like how our voices used to harmonize but only when we weren’t trying.
2. on the blue line through south central i heard someone say “i could’ve been president of the whole world, could’ve taught y’all something about success” — she wasn’t talking to nobody but the whole train listened and in that, she taught me more than any textbook ever could.
3. when you stand on 5th and san pedro you can’t see nothing besides the cliff at the end of the world, but instead of clouds there’s puddles of ****, instead of waterfalls there’s shopping carts filled with people’s whole lives and everyone down there is shaking their heads at you — leave, leave unless you know what falling feels like.