chitbong

“In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.”
          - Friedrich Nietzsche

“No man really knows about other human beings. The best he can do is to suppose that they are like himself.”
          - John Steinbeck

“Do you take pride in your hurt? Does it make you seem large and tragic? ...Well, think about it. Maybe you're playing a part on a great stage with only yourself as audience.”
          - John Steinbeck

“I wonder how many people I've looked at all my life and never seen.”
          - John Steinbeck

“Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood.” 
          - George Orwell

“Apathy is the poison of the masses, give them bread and circuses and they will never revolt.”
          - @bladedcrown

All mankind’s vocabulary.
          Compassion.
          Kindness.
          Forgiveness.
          Do they really mean a thing?
          Or the only truth in this life is:
          You reap what you sow?
          
          Their pity.
          Their remarks.
          I care not.
          ‘Cause I ride alone and I die alone.
          
          Baby.
          All you gave me was
          Indifference.
          Anger and seething hatred.
          Did you truly believe 
          I would turn into an angel,
          A loving girl,
          A sex kitten
          For you?
          
          This body was made for a man
          But I don’t think you’re all that.
          It was made for intense lovemaking
          But I don’t think you’re made for that.
          
          Mother,
          What if
          There is no man worth the dream in this life?
          
          All the heavens in this sky
          And he chose death.
          Money talks.
          Men die.
          He died.
          I’ll never forgive the establishment for crippling him.
          
          They’re all crooks.
          It’s all greed.
          Good for you for leaving behind this place
          While I’m afraid I’ll forever be trapped in the wrong side of heaven.
          
          Even when the boys are fed up with me
          And the skies have fallen
          I will march forward.
          
          I woke up
          Thinking
          What if I would never be screwed properly in this life?
          
          They would want you all to be cowardly and exhausted.
          Compliant.
          And even if you have to be heroic,
          It would be so that you can die for them.
          
          Every nonchalant man has turned out to be difficult.
          And every difficult man has stayed the same.
          There’s no place left in the world for this girl
          Who can’t stand people telling her what to do.
          
          What if the old man never found shore
          And the young girl never found peace?
          Yes, she’s always had that masculine recklessness.
          No, there’s nothing womanly about her except for that body.
          
          How come we always end up electing 
          The same bloody psychopaths
          The same greedy bastards?
          
          Pain coursing through my veins
          Like it’s the only thing in this world.
          “How do you feel?”
          “Sexy.”
          “What do you feel?”
          “Dead.”
          
          They don’t want us to be happy.
          They want us broken in pieces.
          Forever dissatisfied.
          Forever yearning.
          Divide and conquer
          It is.

“When it can be said by any country in the world, my poor are happy, neither ignorance nor distress is to be found among them, my jails are empty of prisoners, my streets of beggars, the aged are not in want, the taxes are not oppressive, the rational world is my friend because I am the friend of happiness. When these things can be said, then may that country boast its constitution and government.”
          - Thomas Paine
          
          ***
          “The moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in shadows of life, the sick, the needy, and the handicapped.”
          - Hubert H. Humphrey
          

“The gods envy us. They envy us because we’re mortal, because any moment may be our last. Everything is more beautiful because we’re doomed. You will never be lovelier than you are now. We will never be here again.”

Một chiều hè oi ả, tĩnh lặng. Ông nội tôi hát nghêu ngao trong phòng. Tiếng lũ trẻ cười nói từ bể bơi vọng lên tận trời xanh, và tôi nhớ lại những ký ức mùa hè bất tận.
          
          Hơn chục năm trước, chúng tôi là những đứa trẻ. Đi những chiếc xe đạp cà tàng, mặc áo phông và quần đùi. Giờ thì mỗi đứa một phương, với cuộc đời, nỗi đau và những giấc mơ tan vỡ của riêng mình. Ông bà yếu dần. Khi ông bà chết, một phần của tôi sẽ chết cùng họ.