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two hendecasyllabic verse notes for Mr. S.

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mind heart soul will blood sweat tears muscle, and bone,/and then always something else—not more, just else . . .

Passion

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From words to meaning― how complicated it is.

Redneck Haiku

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some local color Haiku

Unreasonability

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kindergarteners sent to class with Uzis

Apollo (2/2 - sections 3-5)

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III. Through wheelwind crypts of mystery, through…

Pageant Night

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All the baby monsters are being born on stage.

The Day I Discovered, Followed The Night I Realised

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Nature is perfect... We can never learn that much

Ambivalence

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She said it feels wrong. Too wet, she said. I snickered, she smacked.

Full Moon

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Creatures of the dark don’t follow daylight savings

Either Side of the Glass

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Why do you lie? the old woman repeats when her mouth is not busy filling the waste bin. We sit as far away from her wheedle and wretch as the small waiting room allows. A young woman glares at us through the mental health clinic's safety glass…

Amish in the Theater of Lust

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Through the Walmart parking lot they came...

Friends

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The boy stared out his window, noting the suns slow and eventual passing behind the distant mountains. He saw his face reflected in the window pane and turned away. His shadow loomed…

moon/light

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the cue & flash

Edward Ogle the Seventh

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Airwave candy lyrical brandy brass band singer.

Sea Bubbles

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"I don't know why you say good-bye, I say hello."--The Beatles Things fall from the clouds. Things fall from thefloor. Maybe through, maybe all the way.Everyone argues for their homeland.Someday I'd like to hold your hand. I'mstill dreaming. I hope it continuesto rain…

Man on the Moon

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I even listen to the Ugly Kid Joe version. I fall asleep perplexed and disheartened.

Another Irresolute Essay on Lit and Crit

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. . . we agree that formal standards for identifying literary merit exist and are capable of being discerned, not merely of being ascribed. —but is this itself true?

Busking for Free

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I'll always remember those warm, weekend twilights on the beach after the frolic of the waves seemed to flatten with the impending dusk, sending the surfers home and, after the bait was spent, sending the surfcasters away, I'd claim a square of sand as my stage,…

Breaking Bread at Al Qalzam

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My first time alone with the women in Saudi Arabia...

Desire

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The young monk rose early to jog, his appetites trailing like cats in heat.

Abortion Mill

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She arranged to have an abortion at a doctor Greene’s office, who practiced out of a converted house on Solano Avenue on the north side of Berkeley. I took her there the day of the procedure. You couldn’t go to a regular hospital to have this kind of thi

Painted

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By the time she reached home, dinner would be there in thirty minutes, on the table. Not a lively table, just politeness, and calm. There were no issues of the day that needed discussing, no problems to be solved.

Love-sad

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Then there she is, and she makes me love-sad; it's a vehement, absolute, hard love-sad no one else needs to understand, though they can see; it's an emotion so concrete it's felt from the chest, not from a tenuous concept called heart.

Candle Smoke Wishes

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“The minute I stopped wondering about the meaning of life is when I finally started enjoying life.”

REM-Embering my LED

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Someone desperately dials a number. Iris, draped tight.

far beyond

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far beyond the far beyond sparkles the stars like sparkles

Shiny Dime

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I saw the shiny dime . . . .

Shenanigans 4: mutual and selective congratulation

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" ... that’s a seriously good result for an opening night."

Things That Are Sad

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Things that are sad.

STRAY, chapter one

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"A Social Worker develops programs to help feed the poor," she had said, "and makes sure there's a chicken in every pot. A Counselor asks them how they feel about getting the chicken. And a Therapist diagnoses and treats them when they start hearing