342148
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Its colour a spectral silver shimmered in the pale afternoon sunlight which glinted on its small red and blue insignia so far from home. The landing stage of the unmanned Viking spacecraft had broken away from the main section on schedule before starting its descent through…
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661147
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The first years of her life she had been owned by a bear hunter and trained to hunt bear, a terrible turn of luck for her.
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376147
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358126
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In the desert, among mauve flowers growing feverishly in the ochre sand, a bone, completely bare. Without underwear, without a shirt, nothing. White as a small cemetery ghost, eroded with age, the weather, the vicissitudes of life. It was a femur. I put it on my desk to…
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4751210
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Over a decade of late nights and alcohol fueled anger, and still, sometimes some image or smell would click the panic button,
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456108
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315105
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333109
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376107
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51098
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Even suffering all of these conditions, Louise considers herself one of the lucky ones, as she’s learned there are pills, drops, and creams for all of her problems.
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48295
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No American ghosts are friendly. I hate to be the one to break the news to you, amigo. American ghosts speak in blood and smoke signals and guttural cries. American ghosts MEOW.
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49186
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Because I was not sure if the poet had said yearn or urine, I zoomed in on her mouth as she commanded the lectern...
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39585
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They say his irrational outbursts and insane rantsare the results of untreated syphilis. Well, thatmakes perfect sense to me. I've always thoughtof him as a tessellated spirochete, a narcissistic chancre,festering pustule of a blistered imposthume. And whywouldn't a…
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37586
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Shivers of desire,
bristles of knowing
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49488
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I spend my time sitting on the back step—poison oak reddening my arm—under the eaves, waiting to escape.
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40887
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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.
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52276
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Marcel Proust had never been to a big-box store before. He was dazzled by the sheer size and scope of the store and the seeming impassivity of the shoppers. So many products, so many shelves, such strangely intriguing examples of the human condition. The people seemed…
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16175
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19574
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'You gonna throw it or what?'
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22374
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Once it was raining. My hair was dripping rainwater as I sipped the coffee. Big deal. These are mundane details. Not to Krystal. She pounced like a mountain lion.
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38173
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Sometimes you want to strike out at me. What is stopping you? There is no stopping you. You know I will not retaliate. Gone is all that I will be to you then.
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39875
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50764
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There is coffee to the right and whiskey to the left.
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18563
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26762
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39364
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This is what I am saying now.
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43564
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At my daughter's wake Mr. Aleford, her teacher, poked out his pointy nose, sniffing my cologne. How could I be plastered with this, at a time like this? Well, dear Sir, Two reasons. One, to hide the booze. And two, because my wife and I had made feverish love that…
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50064
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I wonder if she is my real mother, if I could get one of those paternity tests and find out if she’s my real mother and if the guy she told me was my father was really my father. I can’t remember him very well, just a lot of him screaming and hollering an
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43762
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34054
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Ever since he left, I have been alone with the tree. We had planted it together. A green twig in the middle of the garden and a knotty stick, running around. Fingers and branches have grown. Very fast. Too fast. When he left, I sat in the shade. There I started writing, and…
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