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Free Magic Lessons

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" No honest poet can ever feel quite sure of the permanent value of what he has written: he may have wasted his time and messed up his life for nothing."--T.S. EliotI think, okay now I know, the poem's starting to wear off. But I'm alive, at least…

Catholics

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Sundays after Mass, Sister Edburga gathered the team in the shower room, we stripped naked in a circle, held hands and said a prayer we’d win our game. A boy no one knew walked alongside her with a box full of jockstraps.

55 words #2

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I have always admired flat-chested women.

Light Shot Water

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Where I grew up, you did not venture casually into ocean waters.

Seance

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communication/ with the dead

The Piano Player’s Dead Rejoice

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Requires one of those leaps.

Postcard from a local

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Wish you weren't here, Moon man in your cargo shorts.

Snowsuit (from FATHER MUST)

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“I’ve been standing across the street for fifteen minutes. I was walking by and saw you weren’t moving. So I watched—you didn’t move at all.”

23rd Psaltery

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The Lorelei is my sherris ; Ibibio shall not want. Head count maketh me to lie down in green patchwork: Head count leadeth me beside the still watercress. Head count restoreth my sounding: Head count leadeth me in the pathway of Rig Veda for his Namen…

Unravel

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You slit your eyes and flick your cigarette in front of an oncoming car. I see how easily you could be that oncoming car.

Siam

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Our city is really two cities, conjoined. One lives during the day, the other at night. Those who live and breathe daytime air call the city by one name, a name which evokes the relative newness of the place, a name with words just barely invented.…

Not Lao-tzu's Yellow Brick Road, xxviii - xxxvii

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master carvers do not reduce with carving.

The Dry World

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drunkards indulge, addicts abuse

The Egg Whisk

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A plain oval face, opaque except for a birthmark streaking the right cheek like chicken shit.

Without Consent

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You never thought you were capable of rape.

Stockholm Syndrome in Glasgow

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Query

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time timed times time

Epithelial Sample

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I found my black dot nucleus. School got me in the 10th year with the numbers spilling outta my head, but now I got the cell on my mind. Everybody's floating around this joint all pink and green college clean, yellow face Japanese, or the jet-headed Greeks with their…

Strained

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She wonders if he will do the dishes. He said that he would, but that doesn’t mean anything. He said he would do them last week, said he would save money, said he would come home last night. He didn’t do any of those things, either.

Blues Repeat

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don't look at me honey, I fell on the table, my hair is on fire, my heart is unstable

Things You Probably Should Know About New York City

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It is a misdemeanor to fart in NYC churches. In 1857, toilet paper was invented by a man living in NYC. No one knows how long it took for the idea to fan out from there. God only knows why it took so long, or why NYC was at the epicenter of it all

Winter White

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She was seeing a new psychiatrist because her old one had died and she resented having to see any psychiatrists at all but needed medication for depression. This one was blonde, blue-eyed with a Russian accent. From the way…

A Lovely Ghost Sings a Haunting Thing at Her Own Reflection

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We've come this far. That's all we know. We've watched others reach their abrupt ends. They've given us this exact moment and we've taken it from them, sometimes without thinking. It's time for the next communication. I know what concern is…

smitten in an inner place

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for paul celan take it like an amulet a jewel like a tulip filling up the expanse of green the volatile view from within your thin wrist you write into manuscript for the hand is a map with but grasping still it is but a like two palms like a…

The poet. Pt. 3

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I think I remember now why people write poetry.

Hey Jude

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I laugh too loud cause the world looks good that way and for a minute we both make funny sounds just to exercise our vocal cords and see how close we can come to the line without crossing.

The Woman Down the Hall

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I remember years ago my mother saying to me, don’t get involved with the woman down the hall. She didn’t even know this particular woman; it was just a general pronunciation, that somehow being female and living down the hall meant bad things.

Target practice

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...it didn’t take much to just toss it aside and muster up some fresh bravado.

Proverbs of the Converted

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a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single ticket

Police Mistakenly Release Murderer: An Analysis

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He has no plan, he needs a plan, he has no plan, he needs a plan -- the two thoughts bounce around inside his skull like racquet balls.