1837 22 12
|
I liked the taste in my mouth, mint and cigarettes and fresh and filthy.
|
1836127
|
Emma and I were in a shabby part of town with vacant lots and overgrown yards, and I wondered if something would happen as we loped beside Tom, who was slow-witted and 21. We were 13 . . .
|
1836106
|
Now that I no longer sleep to see you,
propelled by this motion that is not magic
|
183632
|
Knocked off around noon, drank some retsina, checked Olympics results. Can’t find Medea’s motivation. Why would she kill her kids?
|
183654
|
Jerrod's lips and tongue were like slabs of bologna someone shook in Kirsten’s face as she hit the turn signal.
Kirsten was proud of herself. She'd been taking it well and she was pretty sure her real feelings weren’t poking through.
|
183685
|
|
183681
|
She had a strange name which I am ashamed/
To have forgotten, seven times, maybe nine,/
Her lips transgressors, wet with sourapple ...
|
18361713
|
and the mass exceeds the buoyancy/
and gravity pulls you back,
|
183644
|
She has a mercenary way of doing business and she's pretty shrewd. I make her stand outside to smoke her cigarette. I stay inside watching her stance as she violently tugs at the barrel, tearing every ounce of smoke out of it, then stamping it out as I wo
|
183621
|
Mower hits a rock and the blades scream.
|
183600
|
7
We sat in Darrell's truck in the deserted silent world of the down-trodden industrial area of West Berkeley, where no one in his right mind went at five in the morning. "Put the gun away, Darrell," I said. "I mean it."
"I can't help but keep
|
1836148
|
You always complained that Christmas/
ruined your birthday/
sister.
|
183532
|
The smell of candy and burn... /A patriotic prose poem for the fourth of July.
|
1835122
|
i miss you/
at times unbearably/
a dull ache that won’t quit
|
183551
|
‘Oh, and try these. ' She handed me a plastic baggy full of seeds that resembled watermelon seeds, only smaller. ‘If these don't work your problem runs deeper...'
|
183535
|
My mother and I are close We talk like friends I tell her about people I'm dating She gets excited for me And she asks how it's going When I tell her I think I'm gay She says nothing She does not ask about the woman I am seeing She does not ask how I am doing …
|
18351211
|
I am sitting on our porch in the middle of the night. I can't sleep. The stars look like runway lights. Out of boredom, I reach out my hand to connect the distant dots. The tip of my finger hits…
|
183564
|
Raymond Carver used to write poetry in his car. /
Tonight, I tried it too. /
I have a car like Raymond Carver /
but cannot write poetry like Raymond Carver. /
The car isn’t enough.
|
183589
|
I worry about my garden. I know there are larger concerns lurking in the stale shadows than my limp little flowers, things more pressing to the meeting of minds than thick lush green leaves might bring, but this is my own greenish way of …
|
18352119
|
I once read a book of warnings.
|
183510
|
And so the man-faced boy grew alone, knowing little of kindness and love. As he grew, he explored the limits of his cold world; crawling in dusty nappies, toddling in hand-me-down rags, at last walking on worn sandals, haunting the edges of human life loo
|
18352118
|
After the funeral there was a luncheon in the church basement.
|
183512
|
|
183483
|
love notes yellowed through the years
|
1834147
|
I knew it was just a matter of time...
|
183432
|
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…
|
183400
|
June Day sprinted with urgency through the halls of the Armistice. Whenever she passed a window looking out into space, if it wasn't already covered, she didn't bother looking out, but not because of her hurry; no one did anymore. She was young, but the…
|
183430
|
Shannon refused to jump from the castle drawbridge to the gigantic truck tire sunk halfway down in the playground quicksand. He just stood there-arms folded across his chest, bony knees sticking out from beneath ratty cutoffs-in silence, looking to Rollie
|
1833219
|
Qaddafi's murder brought an old memory I had forgotten about.
|
1833138
|
I’m aware I will never be a woman the night you leave me for another city
|
