Most read stories

Daylight

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not to free ourselves// from suffering// but become the window// through which it sees//

When I Was Young In the Suburbs

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When I was young in the suburbs, there was an empty lot across from our house. Bulldozers cleared the trees, shredded the bushes, and piled mounds of dirt three times as tall as I. But they never built a house.The dirt mounds, chain-link fences, and neon signs were…

Phantom Energy

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She called it phantom energy. She said it was costing us money every month. A few cents here and there, sure, but it all added up.

Naming Crayons, or the Edges of Denim

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neon carrots and atomic tangerines

Play Pen

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we're only playing with this language you and I

The End of My Second Life

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We are moments away from the end, and it feels like it.

Mercury Unbound - 3

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I've been mostly positive since joining up with Sister Helen. My previous pessimism involved spiritual degeneration, moral decline and decay, weak and weary instincts. I clung to life, afraid to die. Then I read something by Nietzsche, I'm not sure where but, like a seed,…

3 Poems

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We have always been a trashy species./ We study ourselves by examining/ garbage-- a pile of mussel shells here,

Marjan’s Tooth

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When my feet touched the ground on the tarmac at Bagram I cannot begin to describe the feeling I had. It was as if God had spoken to me directly, whispering in the cold mountain air: “Son of Marjan, I welcome you.” The feeling took hold and overcame m

Mine

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My father was dating already. Her name was Shelly. She had a man-like body, buck teeth and red hair, a big forehead. I don't know what bog she climbed out of. She wanted to fill in for my mother, but I locked her out of my room. I just wanted to be sad and hold…

Around Close

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You know moments like these. You know how your mother ruins them.

A Drowning

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Her time was spent in its usual way, breakfast, pills, organizing and cleaning. It was just hours behind today; hence the late swim. She was proud she did it, that she went outside. She swam, moved herself in the pool, chilly as it was. The pump made a wa

Molly was a F***ing Tourist

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The boys drank in one room. The girls in another. Always the same, no matter the letters. Greek Letters. Shabby sofa on the burnt-out lawn.

Cousin (from The New Yorker)

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...to know something people around you don’t know can put you outside of them. And then you can’t get back in...

He Ages

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'love is when the body goes away.'

Tiffany's Economy

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The world waited with bated breath as Tiffany stood in the grocery store aisle that housed the various kinds of fruit spreads for sandwiches and toast. She tapped her toe and nodded her head this way and that while she compared the qualities of two jars of…

Protect

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The fabric on the waiting room chairs is stained and matted, but has been cleaned over and over.

The City's Not For You

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You left your quiet life for a home in the city.

Admit Nothing

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

Sweet Pigeon

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A small poem

MR. WOODCHUCK

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fat furry marmots who play hide and seek

Gentle

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Your voice so soft / I wish it was touch.

Cats Do It Doggie Style

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Xao Ping reflexively dug her claws into the plush chenille of the sofa and let out a low yowl. She knew the old lady would be mad if she tore the fabric, but she couldn’t help it.

Fulfillment

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

Cymbals Guy

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cymbals guy — another way of saying hey turdshitface haul your skinnyass to the front of the bus.

After the Storm

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I watch from the cabin window the death of the sun, hear the howl of the new-born storm.

Get Me to the Church on Time

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In my upper room, a sermon/ was playing about sundry.

Meeting Sandra

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His mouth went dry, but he managed to say, coolly, “Just how would you like me to do that, Sandra?”

Pillow talk

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‘Do I still ‘respect’ you? Ha! - there’s a sweet old-fashioned phrase! I don’t know, maybe not so much ...

Abandoned

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How could you run from me now? The loneliest child in the house