1885 1 1
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A famous author and an inspired writer meet at a coffee shop, both looking for inspiration. The patrons there don’t know if this meeting is by accident or design, but they are in awe of Fame.
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188530
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Just because I’m suicidal doesn’t mean I don’t care about whacking my head on some service railing ten stories down. The fact that I’m going to jump doesn’t lessen my fear of propellers or a broken back.
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188500
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Unadorned tragedies pinpoint the worst angles of the road; simple crosses or bouquets line boulders painted with car crash smoke or skid marks that tiptoe to the edge of cliffs and then, apparently, leap.
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18851510
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On the birthday before he started school, he received a pencil case from his paternal grandparents. The violet, oblong pouch contained a pencil and a pencil sharpener in the same color. He didn't remember what had happened with the pencil or the sharpener, but he had…
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188533
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And him, now there’s a him. I’d like if he were perfect, but perfect things never are. My daughter says it best, when she contrasts the two of you, “Daddy worked to forget about his problems. When he works, it makes him feel like there is a problem.”
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1885148
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You always complained that Christmas/
ruined your birthday/
sister.
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188521
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The Marigold gloves are yellow (figures!) and medium, the apron ironed with a touch of starch added...
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188474
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Before he knew what happened, Shelia ran out of his life forever with their baby in her belly.
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1884105
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It’s a song you knew once, begin to remember now: You’ve had this dream before.
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18842010
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The contrast can be summed up in a sip.
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188496
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The thunder rolled like an old Bob Dylan tour...
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188400
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Some say the simurgh is an enormous bird with four wings, teeth, and a human face, able to carry off an elephant in her talons.
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188477
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My face turns to promise more, but my insides are browning.
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188483
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I walked on hot coals. She got ahead of me. (228 words)
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1884173
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My swinging purse sent saucers tinkling to the tile and the copper-headed waitress flew over, swooping on the shatter, clutching clean forks like a handful of flowers.
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1884101
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I told you that I have homicidal urges that alternate with ones of the suicidal kind. You flicked an imaginary speck of dust from your fat, fleshy forefinger with your ultra-flexible, wimpy thumb.
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188410
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After nine months, I was granted early parole...
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188411
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Life is hard and toes are fragile, which means that by the time you reach middle age, you've probably broken one. Or two. I recently broke a toe when I got out of bed in the middle of the night and tripped over a shoe. When friends and family consoled me with…
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18841813
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My uncle looks into the bleached eye of his cat and asks
"What happened to my ear?"
The meerkat’s eye replies:
"You had cancer. Remember?
They had to cut off your ear to save you."
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188399
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“Have you ever thought what stars are made of?”
“No,” he said.
The man nodded seriously. “I hadn’t either. Not until I met the Star Catcher. He told me all the stars in the universe are actually coins. Coins! Big coins. Small coins. Different colors
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188300
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He was jolted awake from his light slumber by his pod crash landing. Landing? That means he found a planet. He opened the pod and got out to stretch his legs. He looked around. "Wow, and I thought Aleria was advanced. This is amazing."
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188383
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I was making good bread as a New York studio musician and jingle writer, anonymous back-room jobs.
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1883136
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Occasionally, I look down and spit.
Not caring that it originates from
the deepest hole in my lungs,
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18831713
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and the mass exceeds the buoyancy/
and gravity pulls you back,
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188374
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The investigator starts by accumulating facts, as many facts as he can. He sifts through them with meticulous precision, leaving no leaf unturned, no page unread.
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188332
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Teaching never occurred to me in college. I took workshops and wrote often. Friends and classmates, meanwhile, switched from studio majors to Art Education, or from English to Certification. Not me. Teaching high-schoolers would be all wrong. Briefly, I…
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188363
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When the world is quiet, all your thoughts demand attention.
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18831511
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They say, we have hangnails.
I say, I have a bruised leg.
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18832212
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I liked the taste in my mouth, mint and cigarettes and fresh and filthy.
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188364
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"When we say something is good, beautiful, pious, or brave, what idea or image do we hold in our mind?"
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