The closer a poet is to the subject he elegizes, the more we expect him to respond in ways that aren’t “poetic” — but it takes craft to make a poem seem uncrafted, and it takes words to show how short our words can fall.

The cosmophobic equivalent of erotic phallophilia (male homosexuality) is erotic phallophobia, that is, the fear of homosexuality, specifically of passive homosexuality, which is closely related to androphobic shame in men.

The dropper left the suitcase with the bomb next to the garbage can.

And it was while all were passionately intent upon the pleasing and snake-like progress of their uncle that a young girl in furs, ascending the stairs two at a time, peeped perfunctorily into the nursery as she passed the hallway—and halted amazed.