"Cactuses are hardy little tumors. That's the nag feeling I get, the one that comes as swiftly as it goes, when I have trouble pulling on all my clothes in the morning and catch them in the mirror, all green and bulbous and thriving - the feeling that there's only so much more this parched girl can give..."

"There's an old man at the park who shouts at dogs..."

"After some measure of yesterday's success you return / and there's that door again..."

"Late last Tuesday, at the white stone quay people gathered to tackle the merits of the deceased, starting / if they had suffered / and other ephemera..."

"Given the right conditions / we are inclined to believe in outcome. Loyalists to the cause..."

"I still have that photo. It's just me, in a black suit and bow tie, swinging out like King Kong from the rope-bars of the Golden Gate. It's not flattering, my face hot and scrunched, but in a slightly crazed way I look happy, as in whole..."