Happy birthday. It's a big day, as big as the entire southeastern sky. You've thought about it over and over again. There's the high diving board. They'll want to leave at any moment. Get up there and do it. The problem isn't the height. When you come back down, everything changes. When you hit, with your weight. So what's the lie? Hardness or softness? Silence or time? The lie is that it's both. A motionless, floating bee moves faster than she thinks. From up there, the sweetness drives her crazy. The board will nod and you will go, and the black eyes of skin will meet and blind each other in a sky spotted with clouds, pierced light emptying behind the sharp stone that is forever. That is forever. Step into the skin and disappear. Bye.

D.F. Wallace, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men