List 30 things that make you happy.

30 Answers / A Few Lies / All True Enough

1. The way foxglove opens, unapologetically toxic.

 

2. A bowl of hot soup in a Hong Kong stairwell during monsoon season.

 

3. The scent of someone I swore I’d never love again, still trapped in my coat lining.

 

4. A dress soaked in river water, hanging from the radiator.

 

5. Mist rising off the Sutro trees, like the dead coming home for a visit.

 

6. When I lie about my name and believe it.

 

7. Burnt sugar and sandalwood-perfume I can’t afford but wear anyway.

 

8. A tin cup of palm wine passed around while we sit on 5 gallon buckets, drums in the distance.

 

9. The crackle of cassette tape as Franco sings from another century.

 

10. Watching a woman cry in the reflection of a bus window, pretending I’m her.

 

11. Soba noodles at midnight with someone I know will ghost me.

 

12. Datura blooming beside the highway like it doesn’t give a fuck.

 

13. My child’s laughter at the exact moment I’m about to shatter.

 

14. Garlic frying in old oil, anywhere in the world.

 

15. The first page of a new notebook-smelling like dust and beginning.

 

16. Black boots that have walked through too many airports and still fit.

 

17. A lie I told that saved someone’s life.

 

18. Rain on tin roofs while I translate old spells.

 

19. The taste of an apology I’ll never send.

 

20. Late-night pharmacies in foreign countries where no one asks questions.

 

21. The heat of a city that forgets my name.

 

22. The sound of Yoruba prayers at dawn through a cracked phone speaker.

 

23. Falling asleep on the wrong train and waking somewhere beautiful.

 

24. A whisper that ruins me / a whisper that saves me.

 

25. Absinthe in a chipped glass, shared with someone dangerous.

 

26. A scarf that smells like resin and smoke.

 

27. The moment before the audience claps.

 

28. A bruise shaped like a country I’ve never seen.

 

29. Seeing my own handwriting in a stranger’s journal.

 

30. The fact that I am still, somehow, here.