1573 5 4
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The night before leaving, we have French toast and red wine in Matthew's kitchen, our packs and sleeping bags and tents surrounding us, looming like golems. Because we're nervous, and a little drunk, the conversation inevitably turns to grammar. "I'm sure I learned…
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157384
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I had to kill someone today. Do not be alarmed, she was only real to me.
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15721112
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The shop is swarming with little women.
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157222
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I remember thinking the seasons are arriving later every year,
as if the world has been slowed by the weight of graves.
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157253
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The Black Thing spread over the room, eating away his mother's face as well as the doctors and nurses who dashed in a frenzy around him until they too were swallowed in the black singing cloud.
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157230
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The others fell silent and cast glances back and forth to each other.
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157253
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My sweet baby angel has baby hair Baby angel has a golden cross lit looking at the crystal pig and kind mare The drowning unicorn comes from the waves in fits. My sweet baby angel has baby talkBaby angel has a diamond shape scarburied heart shaped…
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157200
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A brief novel excerpt featuring two characters breaking out in song, with lines like 'Arabian knights dance sheikh to sheikh.'
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15721811
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hoping for a happy outcome/
like a kindly voice on the line
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15721311
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I tried to talk, but only / whispers slithered out.
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1572910
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She always wore a little smile. When she took off her robe, the class grew quiet.
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1572108
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Toxins make a body happy/
as if acceleration toward//
an end of consciousness/
is its own reward.
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157221
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Everybody knew it would happen. It didn’t happen exactly when or how they thought it would, but nonetheless it happened.
“I told you it would happen,” a bearded man told his wife.
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157231
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If girls have keys for fingers then locks cannot hold them.
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15722315
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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.
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157200
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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
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157210
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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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15721614
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It was oddly quiet, and the air had a strangely urgent quality. The sun came out, and water on the leaves and branches turned oaks and aspens into Christmas trees.
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157133
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Her whole life was lived between high tide and low tide, moments of giggling grandeur and moments of sheer emptiness.
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157153
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“Me try anything,” he says, then laughs a little. “You’re fucked.”
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157153
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"Bortne! Bortne! Shushort!" she exclaims, shooting her hands over her wobbly head in pleasure, causing it to again pop off. This time, it's a three story drop from a balcony.
Terrified, he yells "Sneeeeew nuuuu! Oh nee padoooo!"
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157132
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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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157165
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Those who love aluminum bellies and landing gear and ailerons... that ilk... settled at the western edge of of LAX 24R 6L and called the encampment Flight Path.
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157121
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Penny followed the woman into the warm, dark interior of her home, which smelled strongly of cumin and other familiar spices she couldn’t name. Penny noted that the tia’s hair had turned almost completely white and had grown very long since Penny had last
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1571219
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157133
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You were sitting on dark leather meringue, wearing slit ivy, epilated thighs sliding through, roots showing beneath your anaemic skin, fighting with the pale bluegreen of your veins. Quills extended from your left hand, bent about 10.2 degrees or so.
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157151
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...was discovered today hanging from a shower outlet in his bathroom...
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157122
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157131
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“She never knew her, you know?”
Chief Jack Gardner, retired, said to the duty officer absently, thumbing a well-worn photo in his rough calloused hands. His gravelly voice cracked a bit when he said it, catching his throat.
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15711911
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I'm just a rental dog myself
looking for the guardian of starlight
peeing on the expired parking meters
and barking up all the wrong trees.
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