Benjamin Alire Sáenz

I got to thinking that poems were like people. Some people you got right off the bat. Some people you just didn’t get—and never would get.

“Someday, I’m going to discover all the secrets of the universe.”

“Because when you do something, you have to know exactly what you’re doing.”

“No one knows exactly what they’re doing,” I said.

Dante became one more mystery in a universe full of mysteries

The world is a dark place. Conrad’s right about that.”

“Maybe your world, Ari, but not mine.”

But for some reason the whole thing fascinated me, how you could get a heart to start again

He seemed like a man who was in love with being alive.

Dante’s father didn’t have any darkness in him. Even his black eyes seemed to be full of light.

I didn’t worry about understanding them. I didn’t care about what they meant. I didn’t care because what mattered is that Dante’s voice felt real. And I felt real.

That afternoon, I learned two new words. “Inscrutable.” And “friend.”