1255 4 3
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I don’t know where I am. It is summertime, at dusk; the dying sun and the newborn moon are low on opposite horizons.
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125432
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On the way inside, Peter stopped a moment on the deck and scanned the trees for the raven he and Lottie had seen at lunch. It wasn't there. Of course it wasn't there. He scanned the beach, the rocks and broken shells, the damp stinking rafts of seaweed with their rubbery…
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125401
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There was once a girl. Her name was April. Her family lived at the edge of a village. When she looked out her second floor window she could see the forest stretch for days. At nights after supper she would lean over her bed; watch the stars in the distance and wish many…
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125476
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Turningturning the pale grey spot.She sits in her carin the parking lotwith the radio onleaning back picking a thin piece of skin from her finger.Turningturningthe seagulls move aroundand aroundabove the asphaltas though it was the wave,with…
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125400
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His hands are just like mine The crook of his nose The green of his glare Pearls of his mouth The soft strength of his voice Those diligent digits The brick of his build The grim complexion of father She fell for familiar A man just like me …
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125440
|
I had imagined what it must be like /
out there in the middle place
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125400
|
The crescent moon lies with anyone (in case you wanted to know.) And the rain – as cheaply! I don’t think anyone knows this, when they are young. When you are young, very young, you want to be included in everything.
“The young that the sea took, ki
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125411
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the arc of her invective presumably aimed at the little boy and girl ambling halfway down the block behind her
|
125444
|
We were both looking up at the rainy sky, while the big jet barely moved through the clouds, coming in for a landing at Oakland between storms.
It sort of reminded me of 911, the way they just seemed to hover above us, barely moving, like they were poss
|
125431
|
I pointed to the strange man. “Who’s this?” I said.
Ethan looked puzzled. “That’s a man with his head on fire.”
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125422
|
So tell me what it takes. // My wallet is so fat / I sit lopsided.
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125464
|
I got caught writing poems
at the paint factory
several times
before they fired me
I got caught in the middle
of one of my best lines
but can’t remember what
I meant to say
anymore,
but I know, just know
it was something real good,
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125311
|
Most days you couldn't win; the constant nag from the fact that it was all a game was your only comfort. I was at the unemployment office again. The gal at the counter'd seen me enough to know when the printer was out of ink so she could walk away.
|
125321
|
seven birds on the wire turn in unison to the right
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125300
|
"You're my husband, for chrissake!"
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125320
|
Almonds of childhood – fending off needless tears and chocolate impulses, almonds of my teens, slivered and toasted industrially baked settling in on egg washed croissant…mashed into the kitchen sink of the catch-all bear claw, then the taste and shiv
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125300
|
When I was 14 I accidentally heard a woman saying behind my back
|
125331
|
To give proper credit where due, one name suffices for what humanity likely will be dealing with for decades, centuries, or millennia to come, and that name is “Technogenic Climate Change”.
|
125300
|
They'd driven the car there but had lost the keys so that it simply sat out in the yard, the yard of the house they couldn't leave because they'd lost the keys to the house as well as to the car, so they were kind of stuck. Their neighbors…
|
125300
|
Will you leave me, you, the one?
|
125300
|
"Too many people were presenting themselves in a false light on lunch dates,” she says. “The power ties on the men, the come-you-know-what-me pumps on the women–that’s not what married life is about.”
|
125333
|
At night, I watch TV shows with fictional characters who lead my life.
|
125241
|
I knocked on all the windows, on all the doors. No one answered. The television was glowing. I went around behind your house and saw it through the curtains, blowing in. (I knew you were hurting.) Knocked and tried the sliding glass door, the flimsy scr
|
125200
|
I got a rash under my wedding ring. I took the ring off and filed for divorce the next day. Mike begged me to stay. But when you can't trust your judgement, you have to trust the signs. Mommy had a rash like that. I used to see it in the shower. People think it's…
|
125222
|
|
125260
|
I know I shouldn’t brag, but you bought me roses, a dozen. I felt I could balance anywhere, when I was with you. I could achieve poise on the head of a pin. There was no need to hide anything, and I heard night music wherever we went. I sat with lovers,
|
125253
|
His wife leans her head against a beam with her eyes closed
while he reads out loud.
Her mouth shut tightly, almost twisted shut. She's so weary.
She raises her collar and sinks further into her neck.
When he shouts, or explodes — nothing. Not
|
125220
|
If I had one of those, she said, I’d never get anything done.
So naughty.
Now my bones get goose-bumps too.
We were playing in my rock group Spotty Behavior,
and she was lead singer in The Young Vaginas,
fronting for a band called The Cherry
|
125244
|
Church-lady dresses with matching jackets
|
125252
|
Reincarnation. Not a bad deal, especially for cows. For the rest of us, it is like being in a witness protection program. And all without the risk of having those against whom you bore witness coming after you. Usually.
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