Effie reckons the river her sister keeps asking about, the Great Pee Dee, was named after some Indians.

This cell the sole certainty, all else steeped in mystery. Why should we be here?

A delicate thrill buzzed my face.

Now his daughter was an American citizen and Max wanted only the chance to board the SS Maua and disembark in New York.

It is imperfect,/ eroded by the optics// of light, space/ and orbital mechanics.

I no longer go for walks without my bamboo stick. Tightly held in my hand, thin and light, it beats the invisible particles which try to land on me and bite. My face is hidden as in shame under a rough gag, my hands are getting rusty, missing the touch of other hands. My…

Absinthe makes the heart grow fonder.

He gathers our abusive fathers, our esophageal tears, our peanut fetuses.

They wait for me every morningthese two furry four legged catswhen they hear my car,their eyes open wide and they nuzzle each otherin anticipationof the food I bring them

I am eternal/ as long as the power holds

...he had that same grin, better than a racy French picture.

He didn't hide it. He told her he was a mortician when he called. He had responded to her ad in the Lonely Hearts section of the newspaper.

Of only there were more like you, I wouldn't be changing careers. And my drawings would still be in magazines, instead of on strange people's rears.

The violin hung on the wall after that, a witness.

Once a psychologist told me a story