Most discussed stories

Dancing With the Monster

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It comes to me at night, the monster. I don't even realize it's in the room until I hear it breathing behind me. It reaches out its hands and places them on my shoulders. Its fingers are furry and soft, but strong. They grasp the muscles on either side of my neck, and I…

Full of Mad Hope

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full of mad hope / we dash into the street / leap into the fray / and enter splendiferous lists

Children of the Cloud

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That some adults believed the drill would save/ us from the blast of fusioned hydrogen// amused us as we quietly curled along

Questions of Ownership

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Who owns the moon? What title search/ could ever make a claim?

Because Your Choices Were Poor

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Foolish boy, you chose your parents poorly-

Boxwood at Nine

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I am Gloria, age nine, standing with my left hand on the green gate to the yard of the farmhouse that I will always consider Home

Make-Believe

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My sister plays Jesus.

Light, Now

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It's 100 degrees in your tower/and that braid you're so proud of/is one hot ladder to nowhere.

End Game

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Where the Story LiesEverybody wants to knowwhere the story lies. Does itlie in childhood? Does it liein old age? Does it lie in anangry outburst or a stingingrebuke? Does it lie in a momentof compassion or in the recognitionof calloused selfishness? Bruisedlove or…

A Whole

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You sawed off my wings then Asked

Shiny

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I'm slim, baby, caramelized as a Slo-Poke buried in the fatty acids of some old dog's guts. The way they creep, frantic with finesse, free, locking their eyes in the dental mirror. It's wrong, maybe, but who'd dare to declaw them? Look at it from their angle, the one that…

whispered boat

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word boat

Hard-to-Reach Places

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Jody wakes some days with pieces missing.

My Way

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We were over Casper, Wyoming, when some terrorists tried to take over the airplane. They had concealed weapons.

Whispers (set of 3 themed poems)

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Forbidden Fruit

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After my vasectomy, I got a T-shirt with a picture of an orange on it. It said "All Juice, No Seeds."

Convalescent

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that was one ending

Tweeting "War and Peace" by Bobbie Ann Mason and Meg Pokrass

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by Bobbie Ann Mason and Meg Pokrass at The Nervous Breakdown website: http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/mpokrass/2012/10/tweeting-war-and-peace-with-bobbie-ann-mason/

Christ walks the streets of Venice

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Christ walks the streets of Venice,/has long since become a regular . . .

Life of the Writer

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I am a romantic writer, true. But what comes after the romance is what fascinates me. A lover dying is the most beautiful scene I want to write. The most beautiful scene I have yet to write.

Neither star nor killer

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I am fantasy

Three short-shorts

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Wake up! But it was already too late for Charles.

Plato's Cave

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Mick Jagger and I strolled rue Gabrielle in Montmartre. Our conversation spread from apples to shellfish. We stopped for some oysters. Do you remember a time when books were venerated, I asked? I remember a time, he said, when rock and roll was a fetus in the tank of…

Training Exercise

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The other day I’m in the backyard with one of my kids, doing what he’s calling a training exercise, which is basically the two of us with flashlights, shinning the beams over the grass and up into the night to see what we can see.

Need

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I need some fantastic news. I need some happy news. I need to feel happy. Need Fantastic Need Fantastical Need News Need Happy need happy news make happy news happy make ake

The Hole Between Them

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Opposite the foothills, on the field's southern edge, was a stand of old eucalyptus trees, each one a gnarled sentry with bark like burnt skin peeling from its trunk.

Epithalamion

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They talk but they don’t really / talk

Reflections on Chrome

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Diedre and Pearl look on from their perch at a nearby table as Eleanor dribbles water from a plastic measuring cup into the bowl of crushed chalk and, using a clean fork, mashes it into a thick paste. A few more dribbles bring it to the correct consis

A Lesson

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She’s the worst student in my Modern Film class and we’re alone at a bar.

Let’s Us Not Exaggerate

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Call him a hobo or homeless or bum or junkie.