I see my siblings once a year when we all show up, as if required by law, to eat Thanksgiving dinner. It is apparent with every bite how much they hate each other.

She was thrilled when she learned that her best friend was having an affair.

I need a different storage solution

You were busy, moving, alert inconstant motion; packingbooks, clothes, paintings;deciding yes to this, no to that. I was simply tryingto settle somewhere in the space.We'd known it for years when things were in place. Now, this abrupt interruption of…

I. he leans his messy head against the walland contemplates his wild mistakeshe discovers a nest of red spidersoutside his rotting basement doorhe watches television in his socksand…

The clacking ventilator reminds me of ice cubes rattling in your highball...

I bought some charlatan art / and hung it on the wall

The year begins well here with much needed rain and tee-shirt temperatures.

Trapped inside a seashell, almost pickled and eaten for dinner—could my life become any more bizarre?

I stood there skinny-as-a-half in “big hair,” ankle boots, and black eyeliner. P. was in radio, not books. He had a sense of humor. I was researching a different man for a novel.

secret recipe

All the attractive women in the building had secrets. He wanted to know their secrets, but they wouldn't say.

the urgent, naked glow of opportunity or the dim fluorescent nuisance of an object out of reach

It is Cary's favorite time of day. School is finished and he is alone, outside his home; and that is the way Cary likes it. Buffalo Bill is having a grand time today! In one corner of the backyard where the grass is bare, Cary is leading the little plastic Bill to…

1.As fast as that I wake to astonishing desire. I'd met you at my parents' house just the weekend before but for them (them the drained students trying to relax, refill before their afternoon sessions) you are the stranger in the room,…