Most read stories

Ars Poetica (for Anonymous)

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Poetry is my rebellion/ against being what I’m not.

Wrapping Kevin

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Wrapping Kevin It was his last…

After this last death,

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After this last death, I lose at musical chairs. Rough strangers shove me toward the carved door. Feeling fierce, I yell, “Don't push me!” House racked with noise, smells, rushing, I turn the…

Europe

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On the way over, on the ship, I met a girl from Cleveland.

Putting the Fun in Funeral

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The funeral was a blast. One helluva time. We all had the time of our lives. Well, all of us except Dominic. It pissed me off that Dominic didn’t have fun. After all, he was the center of attention. The whole day was about him, and we spared no expense

Three Examples Of Male Arousal Without Desire For Intercourse

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Suddenly it’s as though a wild creature has swung in from a tree through an open skylight. Everyone in the place recoils and looks around to see if there might be others like her. But it’s just her.

ER Chronicles (1)

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Thank christ for feminst theory and fat good natured shrinks and tall men who stand guard over me with real guns, real bullets.

First Lives

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There are some, I am told, who never see the dead, though I am as yet unable to believe it.

I Will Never Be Happy

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The woman’s face bulges on one side to signify that she is eating.

I’m going and I’m never coming back

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“Nag, nag, nag. This time I’m leaving and I’m not coming back.”

THE LIFE-GIVING DROP by Ivan Turgenev

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The child began to think only of the reason for being there in the cave, summoned up patience and continued to wait...

Bird In the House

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"Because of the way our society is structured, a lot of people have to climb hard to get to anywhere reasonable in their lives, losing fingernails and a sense of dignity on the way up."

Rattlesnake Pancakes

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I don't usually take bets, / but I took this one.

Sympathy

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“Are you afraid?” he asked. “No,” she said. “I’m thrilled.” “Thrilled?” “Yes, I’m thrilled that something is happening to me. It’s been such a long time since anything has happened. I was getting really bored, but this is great.

The Cougar

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Johnny puts another whiskey in front of me. Except for him, me, and Petey, the bar's empty. "You hear about that up in Wilmette?" he asks."No, what?" I say."A cougar. People say they saw a cougar.""Bullshit.""No shit. Was in the Sun Times this morning.""Sun Times ain't…

Automatic Typewriter

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Rowan’s arm burned and throbbed like the center of a neutron star as it went critical for minutes turned inside-out like hours. Standing in a wall, then huddled underneath the couch, she danced around the rim of consciousness, ripping at the seams of her

My Totally Awesome Funeral

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Construct my eulogy with dialogue snippets culled from old Brat Pack movies and deliver them with a straight face.

Obsidian

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Listen to me, at the end of all things, and I will tell you her story.

Celebrating Difference

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Because they boil bananas and I fry them.

Man On A Balcony In His Bathrobe

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Watering his pansies in their pots with his ridiculous watering can. Sticking his finger in the soil to test the dampness. Obviously nothing on beneath the silk robe. It’s almost fallen loose a dozen times Balding. Maybe in his late forties. S

Milk For Free

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The last time she wore fur-lined gloves...

MAIZE

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Now, these explosions announced, political bribes and propaganda weren't going to be enough to push things through. There would need to be survival from blunt force trauma and fear tactics, a relentless forward march

Sands In Time by Julie Noble

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Sands In Time by Julie Noble As surreptitious as the crab creeping sideways under your patient observation, the sun has inched its way round the sky, echoing exactly the rugged curve of the Bay, and is now preparing itself for the evening slide. In its rich,…

The Fountain

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The man looked at him for a moment, as if he didn’t understand him, “Mr. Wallace, you have a genuine miracle in your bathroom. This isn’t something that just wraps up.”

Watching Our Reflections on TV While We Wait

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We sat in a row on the long couch and no one's legs could reach the floor. Granddaddy took the first one the kid who no one knew and said to us "the rest of you stay put."

Barns And Ignobles

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None of us in the barn knew what to do about the lowing cows. Their slowly rising complaint started off as a half-hearted protest but soon gained in volume and unsettling portent.

Gardening

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Something about the Garden of Eden. That it isn't really a garden, and I'm not even sure what Eden means.

The Tall Guys Club

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Some of the guys wear earplugs. They wear ‘em because they don’t wanna hear it. Oscar Livitt fucking. Nobody looks.

A Felinist Critique of Macbeth

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Lady Macbeth goes around moaning “out, out damned spot,” when a well-placed lick would have solved the problem immediately, with no unnecessary and heavy-handed dialogue. Once again, clumsy work.

Two of a Kind

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What was it about women that made them know these kinds of things about one another, about people, the way they came together, the future? Crater thought back to Dresden, the exchange student from Holland. She knew things like that.