Most read stories

Portrait

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Hers or mine? You figure it out, jackass.

Boys Who Do the Bop (from The New Yorker)

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Enid closes her bedroom door when she changes her clothes but leaves it ajar when she's doing her face; is she hoping some small talk might reach her dainty ears?

Aurora

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Soon everyone will know what is coming.You cast a spell of heaviness and I crumple, horizontal. Like Aurora, sleep is my destiny.Tantalus in reverse, my curse from food forever I will flee, while everything changes;discomfort and…

"they"--inspired by Lynn Beighley's "Ten Amazing don't-miss writing prompts (especially number 6)!--(but I chose number 2--thank

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52. they hate the word hate

Old Man's Winter

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The old man’s face is worn and tired, his nose and cheeks tinted red over his pale black skin from the frosty January winds blustering through town. He looks more than half frozen, which I don’t find surprising.

Side Effects

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When the medicine started to interrupt her sleep, she made elaborate breakfasts – sweet potato pancakes, crepes with homemade cream cheese filling, omelets with spinach and brie, hand-rolled croissants stuffed with bittersweet chocolate. It was in those e

Envy the book

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Once, during an argument, she had said, It’s like there’s another woman, except she doesn’t exist. Which sometimes it really did feel like, a betrayal, being thrown over for someone else. The muse. She could have shot the muse.

Sake

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I had the smallest taste. Liquid heat, gifted from lips. One long moment spent lost in her warmth. Fleeting. I should have drunk more. Would she have relented to one more sip? One final taste? “Be careful,” she…

Short Cuts

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The shop is swarming with little women.

So Sweet

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    I met a girl so sweet, So sweet that she could Break your heart   No girl, no one should Be so sweet So sweet that she melts My depression   Increase my anxiety   No one should be so sweet   More like a little girl Than her 25 years   If…

why are we feeding the lawyer?

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They were press­ing her about the money, it was always about the money.

Balloon Seller

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...painted by my mother with meticulous attention...

Truth Or Consequence - 3

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"What does it say about our political process when I could pick students at random out of any of my classes who would do better than the actual candidates. That scares me. What’s happening to people? How did we get here?”

Porch

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“Emerald Leaf Borers, Dutch Elm Disease and Gypsy Moths blow through here like the Plagues of Egypt,” said Rafe, sipping from his glass of Parallel 44 wine. “You'd think we'd get more than a few days of good weather for all the parasites we feed.” …

Lawnmower Season

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"this is the year I'm going to plant a yucca tree in the garden."

Peer Review

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Joseph K. ran a publishing house in the shadow of the Castle. Perhaps “publishing house” is too grand a title. Joseph K. kept a battery of six or seven (depending on repairs) manual typewriters, a crate of carbon paper, and a large stapling machine

Struggle Has Ended

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Shh! What? The downstairs neighbors. They’re at it again. What? It’s the weekend? They’re both home? Oh. Remember? I think so. Sort of. Shh! What’s that grunting? He must be doing the heavy lifting. Sounds like he’s hurt

Feast of Sacrifice

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I'd have gone even if I got F's for the entire two weeks. The homeless would have homes, the sick, medicine; the hungry would eat. They could not wait for the generosity of Kurban Bayramı. Now was the hour of relief. The children's eyes. Lambs whose bl

Buzzkill.

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[EXPLETIVE DELETED]

October

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smitten in an inner place

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for paul celan take it like an amulet a jewel like a tulip filling up the expanse of green the volatile view from within your thin wrist you write into manuscript for the hand is a map with but grasping still it is but a like two palms like a…

Watching

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An anorexic middle-aged woman walked up and watched me..

Serving

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patience is....

Broken Waters

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You Can Wear Skinny Jeans

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He looks at me again, this time glancing down at my skinny jeans, “And... are you a single mom?” he seems to think he has it right, taking a last look at my aquamarine colored pants and the tapered area around my calves.

The Secret

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Of course then I did it all over again. Got married, that is. Fortunately, this one worked out.

The Color

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The artist glides through an art supply store looking for a color within. She can feel the color, but she can't name it. She can almost see it, but it's not that kind of color. It's not like, say, blue or red, a primary color that animates flags or exotic ceremonies.…

Bloody Vodka

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Broken glass attacks me

A Sight for Sore Thighs

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You kissed me, and my heart stopped beating – it didn’t need to any more. I had your heart to beat for both of us.

Book Review: Cinema Verite’ a book of poems by Sam Rasnake

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Cinema Verite’ is the best book of poems I have encountered since Matthea Harvey’s Modern Life