COLLECTED & CONSIDERED
Collected & Considered
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Cover of I See You've Called in Dead

I See You've Called in Dead

A Novel

by John Kenney

Fiction, Stories & Poetry

Added to the collectionSeptember 26, 2025

Selected Passages

Selected passages

Maybe words don’t matter much. Maybe it’s all in the unsaid.

Brevity forces you to make choices about what things to focus on and care about

“Some women meditate,” she said. “Some do SoulCycle. They use the word soul. That’s what passes for soul today. Rich white women listening to some asshole who thinks she’s Gandhi while they play Diplo and yell bullshit clichés. You go, girl!”

“We die and are reborn all the time. We just ignore it. About three hundred thirty billion cells are replaced every day. You’re different today than you were yesterday.” “I like that idea. But I feel the same.” “You’re not. You’re just thinking the same.”

“Tim is dead, isn’t he.” I nodded. He stared at me. “Are you sad?” “I am.” “But you know what?” “What?” “Like, you knew him and isn’t that better than never knowing him even though he’s dead now?”

Life prevails. How strange and wondrous. In the midst of death, life prevails, calls to us, begs us, says, Come, please, don’t you dare waste this precious gift.