Most discussed stories

Residual

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Our afterlife depends upon// what interesting shape

No Thanks

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But although her culinary plans are running smoothly, my mother’s mood is lethal. Look closely and you can see thin plumes of smoke escaping from her mouth and the tips of two horns peeping between the rollers on top of her head. This is not uncommon for

Moon Over L.A.

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The moon begins to rise over L.A. while the roaches try to crawl up the sides of the mountains surrounding the L.A. Basin. While fires rage in the forests of the night, here comes the moon over the horizon, big and haunted, pock-marked and coo

House Next Door

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It all began with me. I was first and for many years, the only.

Here, You Cry

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Once a week the kids at school got ice cream and popsicles. You didn’t, you never had ice cream money.

Cheese (train writings)

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"This tastes like goat cheese," I said.

George, Love, Shakespeare and Company

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"Love, against the dying of the light." (An unusual story about George Whitman, former owner of the revered & beloved Shakespeare & Company bookstore in Paris, France.)

Herd

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We may think about so many things and thoughts about rain. We may think about where it is going, where it comes from.

Crackle

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As he brushes his shoulders against other people's shoulders until he almost has no shoulders –

Tumbleweed Suite

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in late fall, Rome, sans wind, sans rancor, sans sand or rain, sans hate ...

Antediluvian

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He hid gallons in the garage,Fifths in the basement,Pints in toilet tanks,Airline bottles were on his person at all times.But he wasn't drinking.Why would he?He'd bought the cure at an expensive CenterThat taught him YogaAnd acupunctured away his brokenness.The cure worked,…

The Light From A Sports Bar A Thousand Miles Away

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"Michael has had no drink, no cigarette, no illicit drug and very little illicit sex since September 14, 1989."

Years After

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Years After she can go home.

Instinct

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They coo and gurgle in the warmth of twig and down. They are so delicate, hard to look at without thinking of death. I tell them I want for them chief among all things strength, speed, resilience.

Goat

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But we tell them to each other. We feel we are riding on a boat in the well. That is our secret. We aren't. We know we aren't.

THE RUNAWAY (I)

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Her purse still hangs on the knob by the door, and seeing it is all that keeps Josh from freaking out because he knows she can’t go too far or too long without her purse.

Mr. Kunitz, Mr. Lowell, Mrs. Craig

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Although I think we can easily work it out because we are not here in the Yale graduate school, and diction is the theme of the story. Diction is a choice in language.

Big Hotel Inside of a Jungle Brain

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He's not something you'll want, waiting for you, inside your living room's ear. Go and see your family. Breathe the broad daylight whenever you can. I got lost in some free form dog caves. That's all. That's no path to aspire to …

Kazooed

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"I've been on eight blind dates in three days," she tells me. I can't quite work the math out, but somehow the combination of her wildly undulating eyebrows and harsh vocal tone manage to convince me."I can play the kazoo," I tell her. It's my one saving grace--the thing…

Hunger

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It took all four of his kids to convince my father to pull the plug. Mom's car crash had left her a vegetable, but of course he hung on. Once they withdrew life support, she was gone in ten minutes. The first thing our father said was that he was hungry. He felt…

Our Own

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The world is upon us. The only thing that matters Now is if you are willing to be seen by them. Many moths Will be hidden by simply gathering on the bark Of the one tree, but this will not sustain you if you Do not also have the courage…

This Is How You Make The Bed

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He disrobes; shoes, socks, shirt, belt, pants. He smells of hard work. The nude whisper of everything else.

Beyond the Voice

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We might as well be honest: we’re talking about the two of us here. No one, not even the cameraman, had any idea even after all these years. For more than a decade we’d been bringing the six o’clock news into a medium-almost-major market region.

You, me, now, then

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If I seemed disappointed after our conversation, then, for the record, that was never the case.

Far Star Girl

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She thought maybe an angel had called out her name. She wasn't sure. She was waiting for her older sister to return with Jujy Fruits and bonbons. The theater, neither light nor dark, was to Cassie's ten-year-old mind, an appropriate-enough setting for a v

Testament/ National Poetry Month, 2013/ 25 Poems

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Small stones/ skipped across/ still water ripple

Manifesto

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I write poems.

The Toy Store

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Figures are a strip tease.

Odds Are

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We're on a bench in the park under some trees close to the carousel when she tells me I can't count on having a career as a professional gambler.

Kinky Eggs

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She plucks two eggs from the carton, weighs and measures them with the cup of her palm, the curve of her fingers.