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Mnemonics

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I write to make visible my small/ assertions against impermanence.

The Great San Francisco Poetry Wars, 8

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I saw it all, in a flash. Holy shit! I thought. This is good. I have to sit down and begin writing. This is serious. Dead serious! I would rather be doing this than eating, or fucking, or anything. It was exhilarating. If I could only keep this up, who

Bricks

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There are things we must not say.

Stories with a hole in it: Tales from Xanadu -------1. The kite

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U-R, UltraReads is my new concept, an experiment designed to suit contemporary need and taste. The handy tablet-size reads can be easily done from your phone anytime, anywhere in the world. Each one comes together with a visual to make the reading experience more…

A Black Cat

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And then, and then, and then! After all that, this. After all that bullshit with her Dad, the Associate Principal, the idiotic counselor, and that psychotic police officer, after all that, this: a dead black cat. Blocking her path! Right in the middle of the street! …

entwined

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you and i exist outside of the chaos and noise entwined in eternal embrace

WOMAN DISPOSED OF

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sex trafficking

Book of Genesis

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Almost to the elevation of regret.

In the North Woods (or, The War of Art)

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For the residents of Oak Morrow, entropy is an art form. They break their own windows and crash their cars into their living rooms. Grannies and pets can usually scoot out of the way before they’re crushed under the juggernaut of creativity.

They Take Those Most Willing to Endure, Write Them Off the Map, and Leave You to 'Resign' Yourself to What's Left

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[DO NOT READ BETWEEN THIS LINE ... CITIZEN!]

Talking Down the Flames

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She'd always been an odd girl, nearly raising herself. As she got breasts and hips the boys complained that she was easy to get in the backseat, but afterward the car wouldn't run, not ever, like the engine died the moment they used her willingness up. So

Keep it, Curt

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Just move out.

Just Kidding

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Your place is extra. No it isn't. It is, baby. The man was as aroused by her discomfort as he had been annoyed by her laugh. She wasn't laughing now.

Turkey Hunt

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While I was still new at Black & Twigg, shortly before Thanksgiving, Percy brought me a handwritten memo to type, the subject “Turkey Hunt,” addressed to all Black & Twigg employees in the San Francisco office from management. It said that the firm…

Scene from the Clinic

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No way to know why she's here, but scars and scabs can hold more information than a file or chart.

The Serious Writer Tracks His Stats

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The officers carried him away in cuffs as he yelled "I NEED STATS! PLEASE! JUST GIVE ME THE STATS!"

Six Points of Light/ Dark Star

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Johan was telling stories about the occupation. The Germans were stupid, he said.

The Conversation Killer

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I stand corrected once more.

The Birds

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My wife goes away for a few days to the little town where Hitchcock filmed The Birds.

Three Second Rule

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“Can I feel it?” he reached his hands out immediately, expecting I’d say yes. I am the type to always say yes, right? “Sure.” I confirmed, swallowing back my fear of his touch. He didn’t seem himself, like this. I led his hands to my hips and let them

Fulfillment

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And she's dying like someone who's tried living and failed.

A Little Bit of Syrup

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"I made up my mind then, in the backseat, sucking on a cherry Popsicle, that I wanted to be like Ruby’s mother..."

Hole

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For a person you don't know, a stranger with a lot of place, you think much of him.

For the young couple in the stairwell passed on my way to teaching Medieval World Literature

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I have/been you/years before/of course

Improvisational

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This is not her death. This is absent-minded omniscience. This is impossible. And then again, the inside-out, implosion. And the hall was clogged with bodies; none of them hers, but who could be sure?

Carpe Diem

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It's true push often comes to shove

Admit Nothing

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Traveling in half-lit fluorescence, she smiles up at me, pale and strained

Toweka: The Vanishing Elephant

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The elephant kept popping in and out of the savannah--which is to say, in and out of existence. It was an African bush elephant, which made this trick even more impressive.

Internet Hole (an excerpt from Psychopomp)

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Seventeen-year cicadas are the sometimes-singers that surprise spring with the ugliest mouths of all.

Where I work you cannot see the sun.

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Where I work people use words like leverage. They do not appear to denote anything.