Most read stories

The Weight of Need

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In need of help, he bought his first self-help book at the age of twenty-nine.

I'll Show You God

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...the room was filled with a brightness and a breeze, making you think you were up in the clouds.

Quixote Bronson, Savior of Neglected Suburban Housewives

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Saturday night in the suburbs west of Boston. As Pancho Sanza and I drift wearily from one upscale restaurant to another, we see an endless parade of husbands whose indifference to their wives borders on cruelty.

Order

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Still worried. I could use some more hope in my oatmeal.

The Couple Who Loved Murder

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I’ll give you a pair of grey cement pumps then into the river, your body I’ll dump.

Why I Can't Write Romance

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But all I see, the only irresolute shape in my mind that forms and becomes real, is you.

Sonnet II

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When gratitude on lovers' lips rings false/ As flattery by courtly sycophants,/ Take care to well distinguish gold from dross/ So as to gild gladder remembrances.

Some Indian

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We had been drinking.

The Painter Tourist

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demanded he give up muscatel art

GUNS

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I'm gonna buy a gun.

No Dogs Allowed

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They were an interesting young couple. Tom was a big man with rugged features, though not handsome. His face was deeply pock-marked with the scars that are sometimes left over from a terrible bout with adolescent acne. His wife – though I was never cert

Yet More Band Names For Sale or Rent

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Random Access Hundred Dollar Bill Burning Question The Black Truffles Open John Queasy Sister Tortoise and the Hair Duck Tail and the Wrap Stiff Resistance Knee Jerk Reaction Tough Cookie Bar Code and the Illusion Erosion Eroti

A State of Affairs

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We could act the anthropologist.

CONFESSIONS OF A TWISTED GENIUS

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Surely someone as clever as I can hatch a plan that will make them pay for rejecting me. Ignoring my genius has a cost and they will pay the price.

New Flavor

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Billy fell into a bottle, and we couldn't get him out.

Nervous Energy

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This is what you have to do to keep the unruly parts of your brain from open revolt.

The Cook

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“She said I hurt her and my father, the both of them.” Rose patted her round belly, carried high and in front, likely a boy. “I can see that.”

Just Before the Funeral

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We had been on the way to the church when we found them. The handkerchief in my breast pocket was folded just so and I'd tried to recreate the perfect ribbon in Ashley's hair, …

Beauty Fell Through the Roof

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Yet tenderness resided here among the canvases, the tubes of paint, brushes, and candle wax; the splatters of discarded ideas. We made love the way people said prayers

gravelortian part 1

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our house gives him a cold again

Love in Miniature

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Hole #1 – Loop-de-Loop A piece of metal curved into a loop like a curlicue off-ramp. Jake and I step up to the Golf-O-Rama mat like accidental twins. My ball is half blue and half orange, like a gas station freebie. The old man at the desk said I

Night Raid

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The president snapped awake at three AM. He realized he was a serial killer. Highly trained and equipped killers on his orders were summarily murdering thousands of raggedly dressed people in the name of Democracy.

God and Man at Yale

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“Well, of course I served in the CIA . . . everybody did, back then!” he says with a grin. “Two goddamn bloody well years . . . I was a regular Nayland Smith, I tell you. …

Still Life with Dragonfruit and Absinthe Glass

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Still Life with Dragon Fruit and Absinthe Glass ‚ Allgegenwart ist Einsamkeit. ‘. — Johannes Jakob Hrodebertsohn …And bright inside this space, though outside lightfall? The spillaging of streetlamps does not cross the…

More Visions of Astounding Beauty

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I remember saying, I’ll tell you what I think, if you tell me even one of your little secrets, okay? Whoa! A little too much information there, Wolfie, or Pharaoh, or whatever your name is now. I remember you with the same beard (just a different co

Jack Garner, Parsley Farmer

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“Stay away from fad fruits and vegetables like endive, pomegranates and kiwis,” his father said. “Stick with something that people need, something that will last–parsley.”

Not Particles but Waves

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not in the interest of verisimilitude/ for there's plenty of that in each day already/ as trajectories interrupt other trajectories

When the Meat Puppet Meets the Meat Lady

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Diamonds are for suckers Diamonds are for the miserable at heart Keep that in mind when you are busy Puffing out your chest and Slipping on your dancing shoes We were about to witness the release of souls From the captivity of flames At th

The First Round

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It was mostly accidental.

The Party and the Body

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The Party and the Body The party at my mother's ended Saturday night deep into Sunday's morning. I tried to remember the exact circumstances of the end but although they wouldn't come it didn't worry me. I knew I would remember at a certain point. It…