1734 15 6
|
It was not that he was boring – it’s just that he needed a lot of encouragement. When he came, he whispered to himself, ‘ohgodohgodohgod’ - like it was something to be ashamed of, to be sorry for. I wanted to hold him close against me but I also n
|
173420
|
It takes almost an hour before I drift to sleep on the bus. When I wake up in Crescent City, I’m surprised. Maybe I was going somewhere else in my sleep. Walking out of the station, it feels like a strange place. Somewhere I’ve never been before. The
|
173462
|
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…
|
173493
|
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…
|
173400
|
Back in the Dark Ages, the Mongols invented the first hamburger pattie. They put slabs of beef under their horses' saddles and after a few miles of rough riding -- voila! a flattened piece of cow meat. They then proceeded t
|
173444
|
Kick your employer in the ass. Emotions are strange experiments in honesty.
|
1734128
|
she lifted and threw her legs out the open
side front window of the speeding auto
|
173474
|
My mother's afraid the dog will drown. It's raining and our street is flooding and the dog is standing on top of his doghouse. My mother is pregnant. I can stand beneath her stomach and not even see her face. I watch her from the kitchen window. She's shoeless. She holds…
|
1734153
|
|
173475
|
A performance is a series of situations. Each situation defines the characters that are in it.
|
17341411
|
I visited the grave of Rimbaud. / It was pale blue
|
173410
|
Alicia got to third block early and scribbled down some of the derivatives homework. Others trickled in intermittently, drifting to their seats like impurities getting caught in a filter.
|
173376
|
"We all knew that the thirty-eight year old mother, with the house on the hill, was having an affair with Darren, a fifteen year old boy, but no one did anything about it. When he was sixteen the parents found out and were furious, but the police were ne
|
17331415
|
The place is buzzing with little women, all clad in black smocks.
|
173332
|
fate is an illusion we use to ease the terror of our mortality
|
173383
|
He was supposed to be a garden gnome. Give pause to the squirrels, keep an eye on the impatiums. We found him at Wegman’s. He looked hopeful and observant.
|
173331
|
He wiped it with a damp cloth. He set it in a glazed clay pot next to the sofa and admired its scrawny handsomeness.
|
173321
|
I am far from home, wherever that is.
|
173332
|
We fold it end over end, meeting in the middle where she takes it, and I let go...
|
173310
|
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…
|
173366
|
At night, I wake up, and Daddy's in the bathroom with a hanger in his mouth....
|
173254
|
My mother saw the Devil everywhere, even in my dance teacher, with his black leotards and chest hair like bean sprouts. "You're flamingos," he'd say in class when we balanced on one foot; when we lept into the air, "Now you're panthers!" I pictured him in a dark robe,…
|
17321512
|
He hiked the hills of her condition
She biked the path of his delight
|
17321211
|
I walked to work back then...
|
173221
|
Back in the sixties, I chanced upon a list of books. That’s right. Sifting a black garbage bin, I found the long lost canon. Seizing the moment, I snatched the list, and cradled it in my palms. I felt proud and patriotic for saving such a noble list f
|
17321920
|
It was a pleasant time, my thoughts were mostly good ones, with little effort wasted on regret.
|
173200
|
"Sorry, I need to confirm the results." Sal turned to Paul. "Is it true that you got stood up?"
|
173296
|
One frozen hand protruded from the snow.
|
173291
|
The television volume softens in the shadows.
|
173200
|
He must have been pleased with his composition, as he repeated and repeated and repeated it. Paul joined in the song. Then the children at neighboring tables joined too, until the song rose into a dining hall chorus.
|
