Vol 2.2
Falling out of love, with an object as much as with a person, is a rupture between the past and present selves.
We have to do so much for you, don’t you see? You play all day while we work so hard.
The dead lover is the eternal muse, his voice revoked by death, his consent unattainable.
When Pittsburgh refuses to see the world, the city becomes unbearably precious and self-congratulating; and when Pittsburgh refuses to see itself, it takes as truth each insult it has ever received.
Watch Your Language shadows So to Speak, offering what the poems can’t—not explanations of the origins of lyric impulse, but a recreation of the process involved in coaxing it.
But they also promise a conditional escape: if you attain the right knowledge and listen to the right people, you might be able to save yourself and those you love.