Most read stories

Smack

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They shoot up through the soles of their feet once the veins in their arms are all used up. They shoot up in their necks like the cows on the African Savannah

The Stuffy Poet

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Getting up and reading his poem The stuffy poet sitting back down On the leather couch, which creaks under his weight After adjusting his narrow tie from the 1980’s The stuffy poet clearing his throat, twice, During an enemy’s reading The s

Nearly Whole

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I want that one, unnoticed taste.

Valedictory

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A speech that could not have been anything but earnestly prepared, sweated out under a hot light bulb while june bugs thumped against screens, delivered to fellow graduates, relatives, a state senator, the high school principle, and faculty representatives, all seated …

Fifteen

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Lucy entered the open door next; she had been inside the cat litter house before: Brother Fran didn’t bother to cover turds he’d laid. He spoke of the outdoors: lizards he’d separated from their heads, world of work.

The Garage Sale

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She excelled at plowing forward. He excelled at staying in one place. Eventually the distances got too great and she put an ocean between them.

Rite-Aid

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It was the most prestigious cashier position in the entire state!

gravelortian part 3

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god's seed is asleep in the carseat

Three Small Ekphrastic Objects

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Agamemnon and Menelaus were/ complete creeps. Achilles was// a pompous piece of shit.

le Chat

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There was a time when I washed my dishes with a stray cat who spoke French. I won't go into all the details of what led the bilingual feline into my kitchen, or how he came to take the plunge into an abyss of soap and grease, cheese-encrusted plates, and…

in that time

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in that time people had gone away and i waited in the inside and looked out on balconies. the ending of the dusk was coming and the details of the railings and brick, the tree branches holding purple plums, the stacked railway ties and a thousand other details became…

Five Million Yen: Chapter 36

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Ben panicked momentarily. Which passport?

That Was Then, Not Now

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Memory is unreliable, of course-/ re-coloring savored scenes-/ paler here, more saturated there-

Augmented

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It is our gift-- the knowing/ without knowing--/ that allows us transport,

From This Distance

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Can you remember now? How we could each disappear completely, connected despite fault lines. . . .

Dark

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Slowly, she eased me into my place where I melted into the dark seat

Things an Old Person Would Say

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Obituaries aren’t as much fun as they used to be.

Flight

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I know what to expect because this has happened before. The darkness, the stench of an unlit match, The leathery sound of old wings flapping and finally that voice made up of feces and dust, ancient and terrible suggesting depravity and painful deaths t

SHADOW TREASURES

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Vikki respond, "Say big guy, you eat pussy?" The Mohawk flustered. "Uh!?...Yeah...sure." Vikki snickered, "Great. We got something in common. So do I."

Things that blow up

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For as long as John could remember, he loved to blow up things. It started back in grade school with firecrackers and cherry bombs—he would put them in toys, tin cans, shit like that to see what would happen. Then he advanced to stronger stuff, M-80s. Skip and…

In This, Our Life

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Her captors allowed her the use of the toes of one foot. It was hard to pretend she was numb—as if playing an artic game indoors. With the ball of her foot, she primed the canvas. Her big toe acted as a fan brush, the rest were sable, flat, or pointy. She told…

An Eventful Inconclusive Evening

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. . . I just didn’t think to call the mortician from the phone outside the grocer’s store, how gauche that would have sounded to any passers-by, a call to a mortuary from outside a grocer’s store!

My Resolutions for YOU In 2014

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Every year I make New Year's resolutions and every year I break them. So this year, I'm trying something different -- resolutions for other people. Hey world -- here are the changes I'd like to see YOU make in 2014(1) Cell phone owners: No more blathering on your cell in…

The Nude Pianist: A Novel: Chapter 20

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Elaine Aster paced her office trailing a cloud of smoke of cigarette smoke.

Five Million Yen: Chapter 57

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—Christ all mighty, said Ben to himself as he watched Isabella and Leona enter the bank. Those are some extraordinary examples of female flesh.

Oh Captain, Good Captain: Part I

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I once knew a sailor...

Needle in a pocket

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Finding a soft pink blanket I prepared a place by the dirty window where he watched his world from a corner of his life.

Oatmeal

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She found herself suddenly awake at five. She laid there in their bed while downstairs the coffee maker waited for her to press its button so it might gurgle and hiss, filling the pot with wakefulness. The dishwasher waited too, waited for her to throw its latch…

March Tenth, Two Thousand And Thirteen

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But the things I do know are the ways we've changed since we'd fallen into each other.

God

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I realize that to say, "I do not believe in God" is footsteps away from "I do not rely on God" and "God left me."