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When We Knew

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That son of a bitch meant every word. Every filthy mouthful of insults that hit me was intentional and focused.

I and a Friend Eat Burritos

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My friend and I were talking while having burritos (some days, it is as if all we ever eat are burritos, existentially speaking) and I was looking at the way he inserted that shaft of meat in his mouth and thought him prodigious for his technique

the new path

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once he had planted Lucille things changed./his emptiness rivalled the hollow grave/dug for her . . .

The Human Bible

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Fat, religious, full of himself,

Foster's Landing

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my stomach is empty, but it is my eyes that are hungry

Writer's Block? Get Nacreous!

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If you have writer’s block, it may be because your childhood wasn’t unhappy enough, but there’s nothing you can do about that now, is there?

The Book

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“Are you comparing the communists with Hitler?” “Are you telling me there is no comparison?"

Heroes

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no one told him there was a place where heroes died, but he should have known it was in love

Key Cutting

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City cars packed with eyes

At the back of the crowd

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They were all celebrating something, but she couldn’t see what it was.

Return

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We head home, skirting along the coast, humble before catapulting waves; the lighthouse near invisible if not for a single band of red.

MIG Arrangement

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I do not think it good that you, any of you, know what I mean when I say “MIG arrangement.”

Closedness

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We are / packed in a speck of dust / adrift across the universe, / revolving an ember.

Jim

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Jim twisted the skinny trunk of his body in a fast, violent jerk just as the cop grabbed the buckle of his left Harley Davidson boot. When the boot flopped off, Jim found himself sitting upright, ready to jump up and run. But then he felt the baton lock down on his…

Fall From Grace

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My usual angel fell from the ceiling and onto the couch.

Cider Spake, BÄÄ!

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no matter how many drunks I spoke to, no matter how many strangers I tried my new theories on, no matter how many of my, currently distant friends I out-witted and educated with my revelatory nuggets of wisdom, I still see no sign of impact on the evening

Fall Guy

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Friends of the bride feeling out of place like a church key at a wedding

Disparity

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These were strange realizations, and each built upon the one before until I was completely mystified and unsettled in my life.

From T.S. Eliot's Copybook

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Thanks for the invitation, although you don't make the Undergraduate Verse Society Ice Cream Social and Poetry Slam sound very appealing.

Absolution

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Father, trouble me memory;laconic, idle, some glint on the dark. Recall us to me: what did we have, or what did we lose? Like some late affection, open me again, laugh it out of us. It is not loss I'm looking toput back together, papered over…

Josh and the Elder

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A cruel reminder of his irrelevance to the world of law, a world he had probably ruled for over 40 years.

Sand Atop A Trickling Potentially

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Sand atop a trickling potentially,where roundabout rides hideunbegun business, the trickling of sand at any moment.

Driving in Jeddah

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In suburban Jeddah magnificent houses on every corner of the avenues are surrounded by high walls rising up from just inside the roadside curb to much beyond taller than a man.

Little Doggy

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"A gush of sand- peppered wind from a passing semi-trailer hit my face rousing me from my mental comparisons."

The Poetry Section

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In the poetry section, no one talks except to say, "excuse me," or, "wow," or, "amazing," with the second 'a' stretched out like a blacktop highway. But mostly they say, "excuse me." and that's only because someone dressed in a corduroy jacket is …

Mothers

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There's a surprise for you!Why did she think I would have been pregnant? I hadn't seen her for ages, neither people she knew, so it wasn't my weight ...She opened the door, a sigh of relief on her face, thank God she thought ... She isn't.The surprise was we came to visit,…

Bananas

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Dog winged the monkey's gerdonderplonk just past ceremony. Winkle-wizzened water garglers awoke wanderjanked while apple-gated confederates slept on. Rusty pipe smack-down cancelled water lily gumbo's two o'clock and Patsy sang Crazy for the millionth time.…

The new year begins

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martyred young women lie in hospital beds

Killing Dennis Gauda II: Dennis Gauda Strikes Back

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“That's Governor Gauda to you, punk!” This is the line from my speech “Killing Dennis Gauda.” The speech lost the Tall Tales competition at the division level, but I was unfortunate to have a chance to do this speech for Dennis Gauda …

Frostproof Suite: Clown Car

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My job was take the falls, act the dope, finish at the wrong end of the slap stick for the blow off. I was Auguste, the fool; I drove the clown car.