Most discussed stories

C-ing History

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Conjure calamity and calamity comes.

The Ardennes: Two Vignettes

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In the Ardennes for the the first time...

Godfrey part 2: Marjory's bag

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"when I say bag, what I mean to say is…"

Yeopim Pork Men

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The trio stuffed their grilling equipment in a battered van and left for Dixieland Speedway at 4:30 am.

"Fancy Me"

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He stopped the shower and recounted his life, now Kin-less and plain.

Po-cash

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“Black is up, red is down,” I said, knowing he turned to pleasant memories of lawbreaking when he felt discouraged. I asked him to meet me for coffee. He said he hadn’t bought a coffee in a year.

Debtor's Prison

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You should have marked that territory like a conquistador, mounted him like an equestrian, left no what-ifs in your wake.

Visiting You Without Her

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I bear the wrong gin. Your air conditioner runs cold. It is either frigid or off, the gauge broken. You are not too old to overlook these things. You can't be choosy, but you will never beg. Just an occasional choice as you settle into this…

Flesh and Blood

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On Monday I cook coq au vin. Fatty yellow skin detached and floating in the sauce.

Artist's Statement: Oracle

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Mark Reep is a faded Polaroid oracle taped to the only unbroken window of an abandoned house in Ithaca NY.

Waste

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When the compost thaws the past oozes out into the present....

Check Engine

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“How’s the Pinto running?” Sean says. It’s been awhile. Maybe Darcy won’t remember him.

Abyss

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When Lois finally found him down there, Johnny was wedged between a large rock and the trunk of an old, long since fallen, cottonwood tree. She said as she got to him, she heard his gurgling breath, fighting fiercely to stay alive. When she saw the deep, gathering, red…

Restland,

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He died a printer finding late/ after so much selling himself selling/ a craft that pleased and paid enough

Absence

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You anchor the real You make love to the true I am bound to you in consecration

His Name Is

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Larry lies on top of her, he kisses her, his lips, she thinks, are dry, but she prefers dry to wet because overly wet in the mouth is never a good thing.

Peggy Guggenheim Visits Picasso's Bathroom

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The goddamn artist. This was her fourth inquiry, first visit. Her eyes fluttered shut as she leaned against the cold porcelain.

Obsidian

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Listen to me, at the end of all things, and I will tell you her story.

Father Dunne's School for Wayward Boys #10

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I'm standing on a toilet, trapped behind a stall. Watching Father U mop up the blood.

Seal Skin

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I had told myself that I would not cry. That I would hold on to my anger so tightly, there would be no space for pity.

Lawyer Doctor

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When we're near, there is a black cloud, such as Sylvia Plath described in her unabridged journal, that semi-appeared in her rental cottage where she and Ted Hughes lived in Cornwall. The cloud filled the center of the room where she sat alone.

Feb 8

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Call it a spell or a prayer or a ritual; it worked.

Harlow's Monkeys

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Despite Your Faith

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As the other mammals go extinct,/ we can’t presume we are immune// because of big brains and a history/ of belief in the control of nature.

How We Send to Anderbo

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She's always sitting in a soft chair watching television with little stars dotting her elbows and lightning bolts on her wrists.

Hogging the Lady

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She was not the usual member of the band, not the girl nextdoor, not next to any door, not a regular housekeeper or woman. She was a ditch digger, a pied, circular piper, a mouse hugger.

Rose Hill

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angels and lambs drunkards and whores

Crisis Junkie

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  A lot of people are like this--they thrive on On conflict   My bartender is that way-she likes the Confrontation She wants to fight and argue and haggle And I never related to this In anyone Well, people are scared, or pretend to be Scared at the bar. Some…

Hardware Store Tour

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The Plaza had a chess-board floor, green wood booths, and the lights stayed up. I might be combining a memory of Fitzie's in Binghamton. The Plaza felt like a preppy soda fountain with beer.

Laces

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I see those shoes and the status they confer, and I know what they cost.