1667 4 2
|
Had this been a film, I’d have seen you at once. Extreme close-up: my finger on the green button that opens the door to the park. Long shot: my leaving my bike at the entrance. Slow shot: my walking down the narrow stone path.
|
1666 15 11
|
Poor, pocked Ceres- dwarf planet/
trapped among mere asteroids-
|
1666 2 0
|
A shot in the dark and everything goes black. It's as if the story never happened.
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1666 7 6
|
“Now we lay you in your grave
There was no way you could be saved
You hate our lord Jesus and he can tell
Which is why you will burn in hell.”
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1666 2 1
|
Allie didn't share that moment with Jim. That moment he spoke about whenever they made new friends as a couple— that moment he planned to recount at their engagement party.
|
1666 4 2
|
How hard it is to pretend to be someone else. Alone, together, in the silence... I thought about how you must really like me to act quite like that. I wanted to hold your hand and read the unsent love letters.
|
1666 2 1
|
Slipshod shoes were the first sign of a meltdown. Sometimes she could see it coming. A prickly gentleman washing his clothes on a Thursday afternoon. One week he’s fine. Nothing wrong with owning a sour face. The next Thursday, his shoes don’t match.
|
1666 27 8
|
She asked if I needed to be measured for size “to make sure they feel really good on you,” her lips all gloss and smile. I was nineteen and knew my size but changes in weight had caused fluctuations before so maybe I'd be different…
|
1666 0 0
|
Sora rubbed her neck as Azure gave her attention. She did not know where to begin, thinking about what to say first.
|
1666 9 2
|
Dear Sir/ Madam I wish to apply for the position you advertised in the Daily Sun. Although my expertise is in self-obliteration and self-worth (or lack of), and my work mainly in disappointment, I do have much experience in failure, which this letter will…
|
1666 7 5
|
...the daffodils will fling/
their yellow petals, taunting winter
|
1666 1 1
|
The room turns red and I start screaming and ejaculating. The whole class is watching as Mr.Smith slams down my copy of the test with his right hand and swiftly tears off my penis with his left.
|
1666 10 2
|
And I don't know how long it will be until she comes outside and figures it all out.
Figures me out.
|
1666 10 8
|
Sunday morning beginning with a bang. Accused, found wanting, sentenced.
|
1666 9 3
|
“You have no idea what your lives will be like if you can get out of the ‘hood. You could be driving Volvos, eating Tuscan cuisine, getting MacArthur ‘genius’ grants!”
|
1666 5 4
|
...listening to the ache of errs our mouths had become.
|
1666 8 6
|
in late fall, Rome, sans wind, sans rancor,
sans sand or rain, sans hate ...
|
1665 5 3
|
“You’ve put all my anorexic friends on the table nearest the buffet,” I say. “And all my bulimic friends on the other side of the room away from the buffet and the toilets.”
|
1665 6 5
|
This writers' conference (sponsored by VQR, which had run its banner ad atop the Fictionaut home page in the summer of 2014, which begins to explain both my attendance and this essay) revealed itself as an apt subject . . .
|
1665 7 4
|
The Judge waited for the perfect wave.
|
1665 2 1
|
The story itself is not much longer than a snippet. What is a snippet anyway?
|
1665 1 0
|
I was shooting baskets in the driveway when the Mexican kid delivered the groceries. He drove in fast and loud . . .
|
1665 11 5
|
I didn't believe in hiding secrets or broken arrows. So I told my new girlfriend, who in earnest, tried shedding pounds like ugly memories, who glued herself to my shag carpet, watching exerise videos--that I didn't sleep alone. I tried to be as sensitive as possible,…
|
1665 4 0
|
“Well, aren’t you the cutest thing?”
Shelly looked around for the source of the line and one of the better looking bar flies met her gaze. He wore a faded t-shirt with a swoosh graphic that read ‘Just Do Me‘. True to its mystical nature, her indefatigabl
|
1665 9 8
|
|
1665 1 1
|
I don't know, I could go on all day with these little niches he found in every person that made them at least a little interesting.
Everyone collects baseball cards.
|
1664 0 0
|
“A shibboleth is a test—a way to separate da wheat from da chaff that's as old as the Bible, but as new as the latest trend in men's fashions,” Gus says.
|
1664 2 2
|
my mouth is open, ready to bite your tiny toes
|
1664 17 12
|
There are 1.45 million readers
of poetry in the US and
2.9 million poets. The odds
of an audience are bad.
|
1664 1 0
|
I laughed maniacally in my head at the thought, but I kept picking at it all the same, the bunnies had plans for us.
|