Most read stories

The Vivid Dream

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I had a terribly vivid dream where a big leaf was talking to a baby, and the Mouseketeers had grown fat, and my lover was passing the healing comb through the hair of my soul during the night as she retouched my youth, so I could rejoin

The Invitation

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The poet could not speak of himself but only of the gradations leading toward him and away. ~ Mark Strand

What's Done, What's Left to Do

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When she was just a little bit younger, Dana wanted to be known around town as something other than the girl who used up all the machines at the laundromat with her little brothers' Spiderman underwear and her grandpa's pants soiled with God-knows-what. Something…

For Some Grandparents, Last Goal is to Be Grandkids' Favorites

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At Christmas, the van de Kamps made the trip to suburban Downer’s Grove and presented Courtney with a t-shirt saying “My other grandma is a grim battleaxe.”

The Nude Pianist: A Novel: Chapter 27

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Bounder squirmed out of Francesco’s hands and ran into the kitchen.

Contentions

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...a session/ of hide and seek/ among the syllables.

Hot Rod Heaven

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"a ratty, red, medium-sized bicycle for sale in a ratty, medium-sized yard."

July Night At Greenlake

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In the vaultwhere no one had daredsince your first stillborn screamsI swept out your deadThe gnawing thingsboneless and dustyand stinking of churchesYou came to me thenand I took youthere in the shadowsunder the tree on the grassnear the reeds by the lakeI dived in your…

Cardiovascular

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circumstances// squeeze the heart so hard/ that you should die but don’t.

Give Back the Moon

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to us! Without it we are less than human and cannot guarantee your safe passage through our woods any more. Give us back the moon. It is the primary element in the makeup of our deepest breaths taken to invoke all cycles to continue. It contains…

Echo

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When the poet loves,/ I said, quoting the poet,/ he loves himself.

Fats

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It began the night my parents took my brother and I to see The Vikings at the drive-in and the trailer for The Girl Can't Help It came on the screen, introduced by the completely acceptable Tom Ewell, which the folks could swallow, he was one of them, but as soon as…

Measures

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Pascal would let something slip now and then. He was sharp and spoke excellent English, with a beautiful Spanish accent. He corrected speech among the guys, but he exercised his lessons in grammar with an eloquence that fascinated all of us, not letting a

small pleasures

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sheets, white, coarse redolent with Clorox

My Cousin & I

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My cousin and I walked around the village at night. It was beginning to rain, but we walked on. She had a jacket. I didn’t because of course. She said: “Sometimes I just want to know if he’s settling or he’s really in love with me.”

Inside, Outside

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You drive that '67 Ford PU down highway 73 like it's gonna take you where you want to go. Pig truck makes you want to roll up your window, but it's just too damned hot. You stop on the shoulder next to a sign that tells you not to, and you look in your glove box for a…

Omen

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The bird sat there some time. Several minutes. My wife and I grabbed out i-Pads and took pictures.

Sharp-shinned

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Survival is often violent.

Fucking the Dairy Queen

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I first saw her about a year after I moved back, when I went to Dairy Queen. I know. Dairy Queen!? Ever since I was a kid, I have had a love for the dipped cones. When I used to visit my father on weekends, we would always stop at Dairy Queen on the way back to…

Eating Jane

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Psycho? You dare call me psychopath? I am not some crazy person with but the thinnest belt of sanity wrapped around them! The world will know my story… they shall see! My purgatory... this dripping cell… pen and paper to capture the overflow of words…

Love

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Goddamned crabs. He got em. Lenny. Itch. Itch. Itch. Scratch. Scratch. Scratch.

Les Cahiers du Kung Fu Pimping Cinema

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We at Cahiers must continually ask–is le cinema de kung fu pimping really, truly—as bad as it wanna be?

Man On The Run

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Don't slow down, he said, time grows shorter every minute. So you pretended to stay young or cheated on your marriage or forgot to watch your children growing up, and still never found someone who could understand you.

Swimming Lessons

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We spend our days on the beach, working on our tans. My pale wife hides under a big floppy hat. The water is crystal clear.

Ways of Seeing: Carracci

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I have become interested in Carracci / Ludovico Carracci

Tilt-a-Whirl

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the carnival ride hurtles the spinning man over canyons of light and barkers & streams of cotton candy girls

Sometimes Errands Take Longer Than You Might Think

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She dropped the bundle of faggots she had collected and spun around with her mouth open.

Bats at Twilight

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“If we had more bats we’d have fewer bugs,” I said. She shrank back into her sweater, and gave me a look, then a shrug.

The Money Tree

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Tree full of dimes and dollars

this never happened and yet i tell myself it did each morning

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i watch my mind not wanting to touch the vanished rusty notes remain objects of consciousness heaven and hell inside us each moment birds fly through mental speech dark garden rain olive green cool breath of betrayal siempre mixed with greed awakens…