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I Have Done What They Expected Of Me. I Have Curtsied For My Queen And Made My Debut. This Is What I Have Anticipated Eagerly For Years. So Why Do I Feel So Unsatisfied? Everyone Is Merry. They Haven't A Care In The World. And Perhaps That Is It. How Terrible It Is To Have No Cares, No Longings. I Do Not Fit. I Feel Too Deeply And Want Too Much.

-Libba Bray

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I Have Done What

Libba Bray

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I Have Done What They Expected Of Me. I Have Curtsied For My Queen And Made My Debut. This Is What I Have Anticipated Eagerly For Years. So Why Do I Feel So Unsatisfied? Everyone Is Merry. They Haven't A Care In The World. And Perhaps That Is It. How Terrible It Is To Have No Cares, No Longings. I Do Not Fit. I Feel Too Deeply And Want Too Much.

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Sometimes I See Things, I Think. Out Of The Corner Of My Eye, Taunting Me, And Then It’s Gone. And Dreams. Such Horrible Dreams. What If Something Terrible Happened To Me? What If I Am Damaged?" The Rain Is A Cool Kiss On My Sleeve As I Link My Arm With Hers. "we’re All Damaged Somehow.

A Pair Of Blue Noses On The Next Bench Glared Their Disapproval At Evie’s Knee-length Dress. Evie Decided To Give Them A Real Show. She Hiked Her Skirt And, Humming Jauntily, Rolled Down Her Stockings, Exposing Her Legs. It Had The Desired Effect On The Blue Noses, Who Moved Down The Platform, Clucking About The “disgrace Of The Young.” She Would Not Miss This Place.

Petra Turned To Her. "everybody Lies About Who They Are. Name One Person Here Who Isn't Doing That And I Will Drop Out Right Now!" Shanti Felt That Snake Of Truth Coil Around Her Legs, Threatening To Squeeze. "i Didn't Mean..." "no One Ever Does." Petra Said, Shoving The Baton Back At Shanti.

Yes, Go On. Leave. You're Always Coming And Going. The Rest Of Us Are Stuck Here. Do You Think He'd Still Love You If He Knew Who You Are? He Doesn't Really Care—only When It Suits Him.

Just Once I’d Like To Meet A Fella Who Isn’t A Phony. Somebody Who Doesn’t Wanna Buy Me A Fur So He Can Show Me Off To His Boys.

Judge Not, Lest Ye Be Judged.

You Are Truly Satan's Sequined Spawn.

How Can My Ankles And Arms Be Obscene?

Can We Really Conquer Chaos So Easily? If That Were So, I Should Be Able To Prune The Pandemonium Of My Own Soul Into Something Neat And Tidy Rather Than This Maze Of Wants And Needs And Misgivings That Has Me Forever Feeling As If I Cannot Fit Into The Landscape Of Things.

A Place To Keep All Your Secrets

Our Mouths And Bodies Speak For Us In A New Language As The Trees Shake Loose A Rain Of Petals That Stick To Our Slickness Like Skins We Will Wear Forever. And Just Like That, I Am Changed.

Will You Punish Me Forever?

One Can Never Go Back. One Always Has To Move Forward.

If You Tell Them What They Want To Hear, They Don't Bother To Try To See.

May I Suggest That You All Read? And Often. Believe Me, It's Nice To Have Something To Talk About Other Than The Weather And The Queen's Health. Your Mind Is Not A Cage. It's A Garden. And It Requires Cultivating.

We Create The Illusions We Need To Go On.

When I Dream, I Dream Of Him. For Several Nights Now He’s Come To Me, Waving From A Distant Shore As If He’s Been Waiting Patiently For Me To Arrive. He Doesn’t Utter A Word, But His Smile Says Everything: I’ve Missed You.

No One Asks How Or What I Am Doing. They Could Not Care Less. We’re All Looking Glasses, We Girls, Existing Only To Reflect Their Images Back To Them As They’d Like To Be Seen. Hollow Vessels Of Girls To Be Rinsed Of Our Own Ambitions, Wants, And Opinions, Just Waiting To Be Filled With The Cool, Tepid Water Of Gracious Compliance. A Fissure Forms In The Vessel. I’m Cracking Open.

What Hamlet Suffers From Is A Lack Of Zombies. Let Us Say Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Show Up—ho-ho! Now You’ve Got Something That Stirs The, Um, Something That Stirs Things That Are Stirrable. Boom! A Pack Of Ravenous Flesh-eaters Breaks Open Their Heads And Sucks Out Their Eyeballs. No Need For Iambic Pentameter Because They Are Grunting, Groaning Annihilators Of Humanity With No Time For Meter. You’re Not Asleep In The Back Of English Class Anymore, Are You? This Is What I’m Talking About. Zombies. Learn It, Live It, Love It.

There Was Something About The Island That Made The Girls Forget Who They Had Been. All Those Rules And Shalt Nots. They Were No Longer Waiting For Some Arbitrary Grade. They Were No Longer Performing. Waiting. Hoping. They Were Becoming. They Were.

I Thought Research Would Be More Glamorous, Somehow. I'd Give The Librarian A Secret Code Word And He'd Give Me The One Book I Needed And Whisper The Necessary Page Numbers. Like A Speakeasy. With Books.

I Hate High Heels. Walking In High Heels For Eight Hours A Day Should Be Forbidden By The Geneva Convention.

Agent Jones Held Sinjin’s Face In His Hands. “i’m Going To Make Balloon Animals. People Need Balloon Animals.” “how Right You Are, Strange Delusional Man,” Sinjin Said.

When I Dream, I Dream Of Him.

A Gentle Breeze Catches In The Branches Then And I Hear It, Soft And Low, A Murmured Prayer--gem-ma, Gem-ma--and Then The Leaves Bend Down And Trail Delicate Fingers Across My Cold Cheeks.

The Rules Of Magic, My Dear, Are Best Not Discusses. For Once We Understand The Illusion, We No Longer Believe It.

Oh, Hello," Dr. M Says, Shaking Balder's Hand. "wonderful Costume. I'm A Bit Of A Role Player Myself On The Weekends. Tell Me, Where Did You Get The Helmet?" It Was Forged In The North, Blessed By The Hands Of Odin, Given To Me By My Mother, Frigg," Balder Answers. Lovely. I Got Mine On The Internet.

I’m From The Health Department. You’ve Heard Of Typhoid Mary? This Fella’s Got Enough Typhoid To Start His Own Colony.

Its So Daunting To Walk Into A Classroom Or A School Auditorium. Its Like The Worlds Weirdest Blind Date. I Know All The Students Are Thinking, Who Is This Tool Standing Up In Front Of Us?

Your Mother And I Do Not Approve Of Drinking. Have You Not Heard Of The Eighteenth Amendment?” “prohibition? I Drink To Its Health Whenever I Can.

I Hate This Place,” Tiara Whimpered. “it’s Super Creepy. Like A Haunted Chuck E. Cheese’s Where The Games All Want To Kill You And You Never Get Your Pizza.

Theta Crashed Next To Them On The Thick Zebra-skin Rug. “i’m Embalmed.” “potted And Splificated?” “ossified To The Gills. Time For Night-night.

And When It Comes, Her Kiss Is Like Something Not So Much Felt As Found.

The Trouble With Morning Is That It Comes Well Before Noon.

Live Life As If Today Is Your Last Day Living. :-)

You Can Never Know About About Your Own Destiny: Are The People You Meet There To Play A Part On Your Oun Destiny, Or Do You Exist Just To Play A Role In Theirs?

Sometimes We Seek That Which We Are Not Yet Ready To Find.

On Tv, Talking Heads Wrung Their Hands Over A Lack Of Traditional Feminine Values And Wondered If Girls’ Sports Were To Blame. Then They Cut To A Commercial Featuring A Sexy College Coed Vacuuming Her Dorm Room In Her Underwear.

When You Peeled Back The Skin, You Were Dealing With Bone And Muscle, Blood And Nerve Endings. It Was All The Same. She Liked The Beautiful Logic Of The Circulatory System, The Elegance Of The Neurological, And The Fierce Warrior Spirit Of The Heart. The Body Had Rules And It Had Quirks.

I'm A Librarian, Not An Oracle.

Prepared To Fly, Even If She Has To Loose Her Legs To Do It

We're Comfortable With Women In Certain Roles But Not Comfortable With Women Expressing Anger Or Fully Accepting Their Power. The Most Daring Question A Woman Can Ask Is, 'what Do I Want?'

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