1201 9 3
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During what's called "Children's time," one day at church Sarah slides her left foot halfway out of her tiny ballet slipper to show Davie her toenails are painted the same soft pink as the inside of her shoe. "Look," she says. "My…
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72961
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You gave me chills on my opposite hip whenever you touched me from behind, when we spooned under the rough woolen blanket in your basement. Whenever your essence touched my life like that. Just like when you said, “You came, that’s all.”
That’s all? T
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17061010
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... while I lie, cool as a nectar cream snowball,
in my Maggie The Cat slip, painting my toenails
a color called Bad Influence
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91811
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It must be some sort of Freudian twist, but as her cold fingertips draw rings on my navel, I think of my mother. Here, her body watches my tongue, asking my lips to curl into the letters of her name. I can't get erect. I remember my mother's face—her eyes almost…
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81510
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Your words broke meLike a china vase dropped to the floorAnd though the pieces were recoveredStuck together with love and compassionThe cracks are there for those who lookI was happy to be there, content in that placeYou wanting to be somewhere elseNever telling me where…
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1481116
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He rounds his back to stretch again, circles his arms like a ballerina, settles into the couch cushion behind him. “We made plans. Real plans. New York City. Live like bohemians. Fuck like chinchillas.”
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16611210
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Brian stands. The edge of the tablecloth goes up with him, clings to his belt buckle, so he must beat it down. Everyone looks at him. The two old ones at the end glare at him coldly, four stupid eyes.
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214879
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Mother still calls pomegranates “Chinese apples,” much to my embarrassment.
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72920
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Bring me your poor, your tired, your hungry
anyone skilled at evading highway tolls
Bring me your escape artists dangling upside down
in a straight-jacket from the sides of tall buildings
Don’t let them starve in the prisons of the world
Bri
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124913
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"Carl, do you think we can fit all of our furniture into that red house?" Jeanne asks. She wonders how easily you could burn a red house down, if a claw foot tub will melt or be left standing in a field of black grass. He reaches for her hair, the dizzy smell…
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13942119
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Is: soozly, soggly, 'shrooms and shrimp, chickens and eggs-dropped, skinny brown smooths,snappyish peas and humblestumblingin hothappy broth.
These flinging…
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8122
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26593
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85744
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What if she doesn't take me seriously? My sweaty testimony wedged tight behind the tragic I used to think was honest? What if, right? What if . . . Isolation Real men feel that, right? They have …
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101900
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Bill texted me at 3:44, invited me to join him at Chip's, where he was having a drink. Chip's Bar is a great dive, and I accepted without hesitation. Ten minutes later I was on a crowded bus filled mostly with fat people, and twenty minutes after that I was…
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96100
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Chipmunk SongChipmunk workin' in the roadside weedsLookin' all around for nuts and seedsSmall bird callin' from a hickory treeAll's right with the world and all's right with meChipmunk searchin' for nuts and seedsLucky fellow finds all he needsAs for me all I desireIs a…
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112453
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I sat at the kitchen counter, aware of a heaviness, a numbness, in my flesh, my bones, my mind. My dancer's body -- short, trim and 108 pounds -- felt as huge and unmoving as the…
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84344
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death spoke in a swimming pool in late june:
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100300
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Josh was having a hard enough time getting through his final year of studies without having his sister point out his fledgling love life to his parents.
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1134107
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129142
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My ghost has already been places I'll never see.
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141552
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There was that time he decided to avoid the whole situation by getting off the bus early.
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4916138
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"Life's Little Instruction Book." There are some words of wisdom here that I plan to ignore.
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99231
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They’re coming now. Thousands of them. Black wings, antennas, spindly legs.
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2477138
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... honestly, the dishes were just tired. Too few in number and washed too often, they dreamed of an escape -- any escape, really -- from the endless cycle of hot water and being racked together to dry ...
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88663
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Meeting the past an inevitable outcome (this inside a future fortune cookie). Shame pierces her like a sudden migraine.
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13651210
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Christ walks the streets of Venice,/has long since become a regular . . .
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89200
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they could be barefoot bastard children
for somebody else to clothe
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83774
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Night LifeThen things started getting weird. I could give you a time frame but it was back when times didn't matter really, one hour as good as the next and the minutes used to be minutes not the digital counting that makes this crazy world now spin. Here was…
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256114
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Christian Bell can’t sleep in/on the following: airplanes, car trips, couches, first nights in hotels, jury duty holding area, commuter train, work breakroom, tent, park bench, the ground.
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