1609 14 6
|
He hates this body no less now/
than he did at 14 for its pudginess/
and the hair that can’t conform
|
160953
|
The arrangements of lights on the cracking towers are a segment of Orion’s belt, the handle of the Big Dipper and a section of Andromeda’s spine.
|
160941
|
Just beyond the tree, beyond the fence, close to the grey clouds that hung almost to the earth, a boy sat on another tree's stump. Beneath his crossed legs that he moved up and down rhythmically, under his bright red, Superman shorts, inscribed in the stump, a symbol which…
|
160921
|
Father hands Billy a length of rope. Billy builds his resolve, fights back his tears, heads into the kitchen. It's time to become a man.
|
160976
|
The window washer started saving pigeons whose feet were wrapped in fine black thread, the result, he informed me, of picking through trash bins. They are very intelligent, he went on to explain. (Right, trash bins, I thought to myself.) People tend to av
|
160910
|
I could feel the old house skulking in the shadows. In the basement I used to play in the dark, shine a flashlight on the angular black widows creeping in the corners, feed them ants and silverfish and flies with the wings pulled off so the web wouldn’
|
160941
|
Motionless seconds turned
|
16091910
|
I attended the burial of our affair when I found her notebook— maybe it should be called her diary—that she had foolishly left on the deck of my beach house where she stayed while I was on that short trip to Chicago. Numb at first, unsure how to proceed, I went…
|
1609118
|
He picked at his food. The teen-aged boys gnawed the bones. The conversation was nothing he was interested in. Chitchat and family jokes.
|
160986
|
WANTED: a Muse.
Former Special Forces solider turned poet seeking artistic inspiration. Brunettes preferred but blondes will not be turned away; gingers, however, are out of the question. Must have a voice that sounds like money, a self-destructive tem
|
160853
|
The tax man he is coming
But I got me no dough
Been looking for some new job
That’s going really slow
I bought a lottery ticket
But dropped it down the well
I went to see the psychic
She said I’d go to hell
Can’t cope, I just can’t cope
|
160831
|
I’ve got a full day ahead of me; I have to write a brief in Lipshutz v. Fredbird, a property damage claim against the St. Louis Cardinals’ mascot for breaking a fan’s glasses as part of his routine.
|
160800
|
Two angels walk in a dark cloud arm in arm
discussing the nature of good and evil
Walking along in flowing robes now that nakedness
is forgot, and they both stare at the same eternal thought
with their heads bowed as serenity is the only thing
|
1608109
|
I ran into Tanya at “Pearl's” — maybe it was still called “Big Balls” — over in the Stockyards (Ft. Worth) in '72 and right up front we both admitted to loving honky-tonks and “done me wrong” songs which is why we were there…
|
160854
|
Christmas night was closing in at the Cantrips alehouse in Aberdeen, a firm favourite for riggers and other men and women who lived life close to the horizon. Sometimes, on a Saturday night, things might get a bit rowdy but Mother O'Grady would stand firm and bring out…
|
160850
|
The dead horse on CNN
was floating there
in the floodwater
|
160847
|
Early on, I looked for work; I walked the want-ad trail. Shuttle-driver, apartment leasing expert, laundry technician, account executive, PHP developer, dog sitter, sleep study subject – I would do anything that seemed steady.
|
160844
|
In my dreams I am cremated in the burning Library of Alexandria.
|
160894
|
When it starts looking bad enough, I bundle up and head out the door.
|
160884
|
The Houston police devised a punishment for the adulterous thespian that would not hurt the nights or household income of his French young wife.
|
160852
|
"I found a grey pubic hair the other day."
|
16081710
|
my family's Scottish heritage
|
16081610
|
They teach that emotional pain is physical pain, culture pain is science pain, but they cannot test for the absence of these synaptic conclusions. I will say, if you can test me and find something missing then you can supplement me for the missing thing.
|
160852
|
Hissing through the opening, the spirits have no place.
|
1608103
|
|
160831
|
It's been like that of late. One bad beat after another. I used to hold all the cards, kick some ass, be rolling in it and buying the Crystal at Birdland for all my special ladies. Now I can't get in without a steep cover and my markers are no good in the
|
160810
|
A San Francisco cab driver named Jake, a friend of a friend, was my date for the party. I didn't really like him, but I needed someone to bring. In the 70s free love was the norm, but it was hard to have sex with a guy I wasn't really attracted to. …
|
160811
|
I have hired a relationship consultant. He helps me through conversations with my wife.
|
160874
|
It starts on the Fallopian Speedway
|
1607710
|
From room to room, neither closet nor drawer contained any remnant of pleasant memory.
|
