1691 5 2
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The past operates with incredible gravity. Powerful, efficient, deceptive. Thin, sleek cords sent out by it attach themselves to your back, your legs, your buttocks, the back of your head. Resist. Walk. One leg after another. Easy does it, like a baby. Do
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169155
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What does she have / that I don’t have / that I can’t buy / for myself?
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16911415
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The place is buzzing with little women, all clad in black smocks.
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169132
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You are walking through a canyon made of shelving units lined with colorful masterpieces of three-dimensional minimalist design
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169166
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Age Eight: Custody battle. Reassure your worried mother that it’s alright, this will give you something interesting to tell your children one day. Until now, life has been very vanilla.
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1691106
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Blending in at a rock concert in ballet flats was harder than I thought it would be. The heavy eye makeup and lit cigarette I never brought to my lips put me somewhere between “Trying Too Hard” and “Bless Her Heart.”
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169162
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This wasn't going to be about her anymore.She tied her strong purple balloon to the neck of the wounded horse. Her skirt and her top felt like armor's breath. The tingle across her scalp felt warm. Small rug scrapes that made her think of her last dog, before she died.This…
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16911811
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hoping for a happy outcome/
like a kindly voice on the line
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169175
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A performance is a series of situations. Each situation defines the characters that are in it.
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169100
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Do not listen to Christmas music out of season. Unless of course you want to ruin Christmas music. Forever.
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169110
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It's difficult to remember, much less write down, the hard times you thought were unforgettable when you have a full stomach. It's hard to remember that dirty little room you rented in that house, from a Bosnian landlord, on 27th avenue and Missouri. The…
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169022
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She knew there were a few rodeos in south Texas scheduled in the next two weeks. Mostly small-time stuff, but riders who hadn't had much luck might be inclined to improve their scores for the pro circuit. She guessed Lorenzo wasn't having much luck.
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169000
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When you have lived with pain so long, you grow old and the old man inside of you takes over. That’s just the way it is.
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16901311
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It’s been a series of bad clams
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169011
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A rose and two dollars. Where did they come from? I didn't know anyone who had visited my parents' grave recently, yet that evening I saw a white rose on my mother's side and two bucks on my father's. I took the money and placed my own flowers with the rose. It had to have…
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169065
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the names / she carried (within)
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169076
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So, I escaped from the Iron Curtain out of Czechoslovakia, as was called then. That was in 1956 I escaped, and came to Chicago where all of you were for some time already. I know our grandparents came over in early part of century, but my part of family
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169000
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Not long ago, Owen the Second showed her a skull. He kept it in a brown cardboard box in the top of the closet. "My first wife," he said, and sneered, his lip bunching up around a scar just under his nose.
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169093
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During what's called "Children's time," one day at church Sarah slides her left foot halfway out of her tiny ballet slipper to show Davie her toenails are painted the same soft pink as the inside of her shoe. "Look," she says. "My…
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1690117
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On his knees
he divinates diverging lines
with belly laughs he levitates
the rebel spheres into geodes .
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16902311
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The missions never change:/
To plant a bed of fast-blooming/
Flowers of annihilation/
Across an unspecific plain.
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16902714
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At some point, my lottery number/
was in the mid 300s. I was safe/
for whatever reason. No need/
to burn my draft card.
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169010
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Sophie hoped that Ryan would just stay in the bathroom and never come out. Her stomach turned just thinking about him, but wealthy nerds were easier to work than wealthy regular guys. No self-esteem, no experience with women…no problem.
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168910
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It’s the small stuff. Always. A conversation with a stranger, brief yet so connected it overwhelms you. These encounters can move me beyond my reality, little reminders that, if you just crack the window a little, something very special can blow in.
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168930
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“Listen, Mother – you’re my ticket out of this burg and I’m not about to cash it in!”
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168988
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I scratch a red welt onto the inside of my white knee. The knee itches like crazy. Pain too, down to my bones. The Congo calls.
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168941
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Each drip off the corrugated plastic sheeting made a tinny sound that he could hear from deep within the damp sleeping bag and layers of blankets where he was trying to sleep.
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168921
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An undercover agent posed as an Orthodox Jewish woman in a sting operation that led to the arrest of two rabbis for kidnapping men who refused to grant divorces to their wives.
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16891810
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It’s Sunday- no need to shave-/
but shave, I do. A little act//
of discipline in the discipline/
of routine.
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168964
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...the knives she laid out on the porch before her husband left her, washed and dried, set neatly by copper pennies.
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