1685 0 0
|
This summer they had reached their fifth anniversary, the landmark they’d dubbed the Bacchanal year. Instead of exchanging gifts made of wood, they’d bought expensive wines and champagnes and emancipated their bodies of clothing for two straight days. The
|
1685 1 0
|
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.
|
1684 8 5
|
I'll never be a Republican Megadonor or a Doomed Aviatrix. But I'm okay with that.
|
1684 0 0
|
Sofia looked around and found herself at a boulevard. She could see the town exit ahead of her. The bike still lied on the ground.
|
1684 9 8
|
Who are all these rough looking people, hanging over me, itching me with their shaggy, grapevine arms? Like twisting, dangling down, painted, cloth Gargoyles on a quickly coming apart, dried up rope? It's always been the same old perch to view from. You wanted to know…
|
1684 8 8
|
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.
|
1684 1 0
|
Lise started making up words when she lost her voice.
|
1684 6 6
|
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.
|
1684 2 1
|
he took me hostage as I came out the door.
Nelson took me hostage and we went back to his parents' house. They were gone crappie fishing so I had to spend the whole weekend alone with him. I didn't have anything lined up for Saturday night, so it wasn'
|
1684 5 3
|
Slept on a chair last night in the Springfield, Mass., bus terminal. It was March, and a dude in shorts asked: "Yo, you smoke trees?" I said, "Sure. Who doesn't?" He said, "You buyin'?" I said, "Nope, I'm going out of the country." He smiled and said, "Alright." He started…
|
1684 9 1
|
The television volume softens in the shadows.
|
1684 0 0
|
Do not listen to Christmas music out of season. Unless of course you want to ruin Christmas music. Forever.
|
1684 6 5
|
|
1684 1 0
|
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…
|
1684 2 2
|
Our Core Values define evil as the concealment of information. And those who conceal information are evil.
|
1683 6 5
|
You may think you've tasted envy, but yours was just a sour sip of wine at a civilized wine-tasting. Mine is bottom-shelf, well-brand gin in a biker bar with miss-the-urinal piss stains on the floor.
|
1683 7 6
|
Clear as my conscience may be, you still haunt me as the brown settles to black
sit there and recommence as if nothing had ever happened, your hands conducting the orchestra of your purity.
|
1683 1 0
|
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.
|
1683 4 1
|
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.
|
1683 18 10
|
It’s Sunday- no need to shave-/
but shave, I do. A little act//
of discipline in the discipline/
of routine.
|
1683 12 11
|
I walked to work back then...
|
1683 6 6
|
What she didn't tell me was that her brother Carl got fried during an electrical storm.
|
1683 0 0
|
oh, sure i’m still running around like a heads-up/off/prophet/profit/fit trying to cut off my very own de/(con)instruction and all other sordid a•void•able & available/a-Babel towers of post &toastmodern doom/daze
|
1683 12 12
|
Your mother is a great and dying bird. Once, she tended her grand feathered nest. Once, she preened.
|
1683 2 3
|
BABY MOUSE She and the baby squeeze into the neon blue star-studded rocket ship in front of K-Mart, a tight fit because the baby's still inside her and the ship is made for under ten year olds and the steering wheel dents her stomach and the baby backs up and…
|
1683 10 2
|
I won’t be eating much anyway if someone doesn’t start reading me. I’ve got to get a hook so people will be drawn to my work. I’ve got a few concepts I’d like to share with you. See what you think.
|
1682 5 4
|
|
1682 3 0
|
“Listen, Mother – you’re my ticket out of this burg and I’m not about to cash it in!”
|
1682 10 8
|
That's demeaning enough, but not as hard to take as the customers. They're all jaded hipsters, thumb diddling smartphone freaks, pretending their online interactions actually count as relationships and that “tweets” are real conversations. It's sad, reall
|
1682 13 11
|
It’s been a series of bad clams
|