Most discussed stories

Fiancée

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We walk to the Narrows from the boutique, fortified by talk of men and fashion. The Narrows is a blues bar known for outbreaks of small violence. I am wearing the winter white swing coat I bought for the wedding and the gold and turquoise beads.

Raisins

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Sylvia used his computer to write two-page stories about women who killed themselves with blue pills because the shirts came back from the laundry unpressed and their husbands stayed out late with secretaries. Every story ended with the image it began.

Here's Looking at Euclid

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Hoboken memories

The Leg

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They all looked for Vic's leg after the accident.

watch

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what drives them here?

Time to Rest

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the mighty mountains sighed, and the wide seas heaved

How Elm Trees Die

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I had felt suddenly lighter and next thing I knew I was watching Leonard Tucker and Sister William from somewhere near the ceiling. I saw myself, too, at my desk, holding my songbook out in front of me like everyone else.

Teacher

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Professor William Purcell, dean of the university's shrinking drama department. Fifty, tall and thin, always well dressed . . .

Our Kodak Moment

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“Should I go over?” Ma asked, wishing she could freshen her lipstick while finger-combing her frosted hair. “Sarah, fagodsake, let the man eat in peace. No one wants to have his picture made with food in their mouth,” said Pa.

Erase Her

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I wake up in the morning and write her name on the white paper napkin I always place in front of me at the kitchen table as I have my first cup of coffee. I write it throughout the day. Twelve or fifteen times. I've done this for exactly twenty-three days. I always…

Another Story About Me And Some Guy

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We met because I hate the actor Bruce Willis.

...And Nail

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For twenty-eight years, Cochran Baines removed a tooth from the mouth of every dead child that spent time on his table.

Ambulance

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Once you start telling the truth it's hard to quit. You look around and reasons are everywhere. It's like a new appliance, truth-telling, a can opener that's so good you barely have to turn it.On the phone my sister asks me why I don't come out and see her in San…

The End of My Second Life

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We are moments away from the end, and it feels like it.

Honor Grade

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It was a surprise they put me in a dormitory, not a cell,

First Sex

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After our date, my sister, who has a boyfriend, came over with her Weimaraner. I started instantly to tell her of my sex with Nils. She shirked the conversation, tried to change the subject, and more than once, I persisted. I wanted her to hear about it.

Windowers

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naturally, the windowless ones are the worst.

DICKEY DEW

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One of my father’s friends never had a name so everyone called him Dickey Dew because he said that’s what everyone called him after he got his balls shot off in Vietnam. I used to sit on his lap while they played five card draw and he would pretend no

Hors d'oeuvre

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What scares her about libraries are unshelved books, the ones you thumb through while you are waiting for the elevator, because you realize that there are too many books in the world and you are holding that particular book only because it is lost.

Calm Face

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I went for a walk to buy coffee, here's what I saw

Colony

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“It won’t work,” I say..

Perfect

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"My mother loses patience when I get sad," I said. "She tells me about the dog."

Vanya

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That spring the war still moved north but we did not go to it any longer.

Kin of His

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I dreamed that coffee grounds had spilled on my Buffet. There was another clarinet, a silver one, that belonged to a man not in the room, that was clean of debris.

A Sonnet for Anna

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Toting a sawed-off shotgun at the altar

OVER EASY

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She slouched on one hip, scribbled on the order pad. “How do you like your eggs?” “I like them very much.”

Pie

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Some folks say your hands can tell the story of your life. Well, my hands cain't talk, but they've made so many pies, I bet they could do it themselves if you cut 'em off and gave 'em the right ingredients, I sure do.

Oh, Fish Eggs!

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A motivational speaker I know intimately cannot abide any form of swearing.

Son of Uncle Sam

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He’s hooked on the pinball / excitements of adolescence

Things I Should Have Done - #5

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When I walked into the local police precinct to meet with a detective about the scope of my rights, I was thinking about Rocco, the adored dog of a long-ago life.