HEALING; But Bae, like every other wound, this will take time to heal. All I'm asking is that you give it the chance to. ...

THE CURSE; Living with that sore between your legs. Knowing if you hadn't had that thing there you'd still be walking around complete. That's the worse part. That you can't scrub it off in the bathroom; that you couldn't strike a match and leave it there to burn. ...

TWO SIDES, ONE COIN; You wake up thinking things couldn't get better. You go to sleep thinking things couldn't get any worse. ...

Like A PIPE WITH NO FAUCET; You speak of pain like you understood. You spurt urine in whatever direction you like, you draw a rainbow across the wall with it, and you sit there and talk about knowing how I feel. Why, I don't even know how I feel. My daughter. My daughter has to wear a napkin everywhere. To the office. To bed. To the pool! You know how it feels to not be able to say "I can't pee now because I'm watching a movie, or because I'm working or because I'm outright lazy to get out the bed"; how it feels to stand to leave the train and discover your seat is wet and people are turning to look at you; how it feels to wait till everyone leaves the bus or till it's dark to walk back home. No you don't. Because even I don't. The freakin fool did it to my daughter when she was just ten. Ten! ...

ADAM AND EVE; Weirdly, the Doc liked to keep his hands busy while in session with his clients. Either he was drawing a biochemical pathway or he was writing a drug name or something. This time he was writing the procedure he was explaining to the couple: systematic... "Excuse me Sir. Do you mean we have to go through all these steps to have sex? Like, couldn't we—" The Doc shook his head. "You're joking right. Okay, how about a quickie on the kitchen table just before the kids step in? You're saying we can't do that?" He shook his head. "Until she can better cope." "So you're saying—chill out! What you're telling me is that my wife needs to have a stupid meditation to have sex with me?" "Honey it's—" "—you know what? Tell me Doc, if you were me would you put up with this—" "Baby!" "Tell me, Doc." At that point, the kind Doc sat up straight in his chair and shook his head. Then he took his pen and completed his word: ...desensitization. Weirdly, he still had clients choking his reception outside. ...

BOY OH BOY; When I'm in my wife I feel like I'm in soft plastic. Or some live cadaver. No feelings. No passion. No hmm's. No oh yeah's like in the movies. You feel me? It's just there, bland, like I'm doing myself. So I'm thinking. How could a man do that to his brother? I don't get it. ...

LONER; You know, the bad thing about this darkness is that it feels like yours. At first you're like, how did I get here? Then you begin to feel comfortable with it, begin to feel like it's yours and you must nurse it because it's the only thing, the only thing you have. You begin to own it. You're lucky if people step beyond understanding to supporting. You're a few steps from hell and it's only a matter of time before you get there if you're alone. ...

BOY COT, BOY CULT, BOYCOTT "You're on your own kid." They don't say it, but I hear it. I sleep in the store now. With the chicken eggs and all-those-kitchen-stuff. My brother will soon join me. Because Papa will turn to him. And Mama will find out and will want to protect her husband, and will not want my brother to contaminate the baby in her stomach like I did him. If it's a boy, he's already in big trouble. ... But Bruh, like every other wound, this will take time to heal. All I'm asking is that you give it the chance to. But Bruh, like every other wound, this will take time to heal. All I'm asking is that you give it the chance to. ...

PASS THIS ON, WILL YOU; My father says, if you can't stop evil now, stall it. Make it wait. Perhaps in that delay, good will overtake it.