1693 12 12
|
Your mother is a great and dying bird. Once, she tended her grand feathered nest. Once, she preened.
|
169311
|
so I tighten hands with my castaway and say/you failed to impress in your folded peacock dress
|
1693106
|
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.”
|
169300
|
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.
|
1693117
|
On his knees
he divinates diverging lines
with belly laughs he levitates
the rebel spheres into geodes .
|
169310
|
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.
|
169376
|
Uh oh, the dry cleaning ticket
|
16922010
|
Practice has perfected disengagement.
|
169252
|
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
|
169255
|
What does she have / that I don’t have / that I can’t buy / for myself?
|
169265
|
the names / she carried (within)
|
169276
|
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
|
169262
|
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…
|
169293
|
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…
|
169210
|
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…
|
1691168
|
Her clothing style varies from grunge to glamor and . . . she always looks good.
|
169100
|
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.
|
16911311
|
It’s been a series of bad clams
|
169188
|
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.
|
169197
|
It doesn't have to be force grown betweenus. We entwine naturally. It's agood feeling to have a friend who at oncedoesn't require a hothouse ceiling laidbetween each invisible touch. There's justwind. There's just rain. There's just sun. There's just you.There's just…
|
16911811
|
hoping for a happy outcome/
like a kindly voice on the line
|
16912714
|
At some point, my lottery number/
was in the mid 300s. I was safe/
for whatever reason. No need/
to burn my draft card.
|
169100
|
Do not listen to Christmas music out of season. Unless of course you want to ruin Christmas music. Forever.
|
169142
|
In a small, cozy diner lived a homemade meatloaf. The meatloaf spent its days lounging on a warm plate with some mashed potatoes and sweet corn. Together they watched television, argued about sports, and ate blueberry pie...
|
16912315
|
I am long of tooth, too, and when I go, maybe a box with my ashes inside will join the boxes containing the cats’ remains.
|
169110
|
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.
|
169064
|
...the knives she laid out on the porch before her husband left her, washed and dried, set neatly by copper pennies.
|
1690127
|
The fish would need a name, but she didn’t know how to tell if it was a boy or a girl. Did fish have penises?
|
169011
|
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…
|
16901513
|
San Bruno avenue, six shops in eight blocks. Those Vietnamese ladies thrive on the pedicure trade.
|
