1721 5 2
|
Almost to the elevation of regret.
|
172100
|
The money stank on the table. Money is dirty she said, one of the dirtiest things. So many people touch it. This pile of brine would not explain its reek, only demanded that we accepted its stench as requisite. It had to have been the cash that stank, prior to its arrival…
|
172133
|
Karen likes to make a big deal about life experience. Specifically how much more she has than me. What that actually means, she's never made clear. The definition changes and mutates as the years go by, always in her…
|
172150
|
In a little dirt church at the end of the world stands the ikon of an unrecognized saint.
|
172111
|
Paul had come to Hawaii, like many young haoles from the mainland, to party. Partying proved to be lucrative for him. By early October 1982 he had done well for himself in Hawaii, living in a country house with sprawling lawns that held back the jungle foliage…
|
172124
|
We got our holes in our hearts bundled onto soft wrapping cloth just like the gentleman on TV said; with smiles we set out towards our matching end of the same old stories. That's just the way…
|
172185
|
They are plastering on lipstick in pay-to-enter toilets
around the corner from the mosques, where old men
sit on back streets selling toilet seats, spices by the
shovel, flashlights, and Audrey Hepburn t-shirts
|
172100
|
I woke up around 6 pm today. As always, mum would wake me up. I have this special bond with my bed and parting with her during my most vulnerable is anathema to my nature. Thrice mum would pull my feet and thrice I would groan hoping she would go…
|
172193
|
Where I work people use words like leverage. They do not appear to denote anything.
|
172042
|
I think for a second that I should have called my husband out to witness this thing, but I am instantly made aware of why I have not.
|
172000
|
You know what parents have to do to get an Xbox? They don't just stand in line and someone hands them an Xbox, OK? That's sacrifice. They have to sacrifice and sacrifice and sacrifice. I mean, I chase alpacas a mile every night in subfreezing conditions,
|
17201310
|
Fortunately, when the bird hits the sliding glass doors in our den, I know what to do.
|
17202214
|
Over the years, his face
began to alter
|
172021
|
I didn’t always have this metal thing poking out of the top of my head. I used to be a self-respecting farm animal amongst a barnyard of toys, but then the kids grew up.
|
1720107
|
I threw my hand / at the gearshift/
the car glided off.
|
172000
|
I went out behind Parker's house and saw Darrell's tent set up in the grass. The flaps of the pup tent were open. I could see him through the mosquito netting. He had a Coleman lamp burning and lay on his back in his underwear on top of his sleeping bag.
|
172032
|
”My goodness how that child nurses hope,” Edward’s Grandad would often say, “were it not for her where indeed would this family be?”
|
172032
|
The most beautiful possible thing is to deprive all places of their meanings.
|
17201812
|
He spends his Sunday morning spraying WD-40 through the straw-like stream attachment at the expansive paper nest of beige and ivory striped wasps.
|
171955
|
Is it you with that fucking gold and platinum yacht?!?
|
171982
|
Entering that darkroom is like slipping through the barrel of a rifle.
|
1719136
|
The clacking ventilator reminds me of ice cubes rattling in your highball...
|
171900
|
A group of nuns arrived in the middle of my first night at Hinsdale Hospital. I guess I must have dozed off when this odd noise, like curtains being moved, woke me up. At first I couldn't make out what that rustling sound was in the hallway outside my doo
|
171910
|
you and i exist
outside of the chaos and noise
entwined in eternal embrace
|
171920
|
I am a shadow. Cooler than liquid. I don't need a container to take shape.
|
171821
|
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.
|
17181813
|
One must be drenched in words.
|
1718127
|
Val walks through the world, absorbed in the day to day. A plainspoken narrator drones on in his mind. The nondescript voice marks time to the beat of Val's banal footfall, hums along with the whir of Val's modest, midsize sedan. The narration is loudest in the twilight…
|
1718119
|
Be careful when you choose your muse,
for she may be a siren.
|
171822
|
We have a responsibility,” she says, “to enrich our local business community while delivering quality products to customers.” She had brought over some application forms for the Better Business Bureau, and we sit at the big table and fill them out, marki
|
