997 3 3
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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…
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996 3 0
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Valerie had purchased a new cell phone in late 2007, and, say a few months afterwards, in the beginning of 2008 a demon briefly took up residence in it. She had just returned home from running a few errands, and set her phone down on her desk. She had been focusing on…
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996 0 0
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Slowly
slowly
the veil is lifted
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996 0 0
|
I’ve really had it up to here
with people who say “awesome”
of things that don’t inspire awe.
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996 1 0
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She left the bathroom and slammed the bedroom door. He heard the lock close.
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996 3 1
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I am in a war against the literal. I have sewn these words together to make a stand of birch. I wander the earth gathering moon shadows and swords. Kerosene dots punctuate the Dakota night. An apparition of words hops through a calculus problem and falls into a…
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996 2 0
|
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996 4 1
|
“So–you can get a stimulus check even if you’re dead?” I asked.
“hell man–in chicago you can vote if you’re dead. i’ve tried to stay active politically.”
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996 2 0
|
Connecting the dots the past two weeks, I’ve concluded you’re pregnant again.
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996 0 0
|
Until the stars form last nightI zoom out with an empty heart.Whose forgiveness forgesseas of overabundance, parksUnder the river's bed as magazine?Jet heavy, my tenses shift in an operation between two frightened doctors. I'm hiding onside: the lines & in the branches…
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996 5 4
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once he had planted Lucille things changed./his emptiness rivalled the hollow grave/dug for her . . .
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996 0 0
|
On the parking lot of the bar, two in the afternoonYou notice the battered car, dented up body of a Ford escort,No hubcaps, plastic in two of windows,It yells a story to youA familiar storyHead into the bar2 O' clock in the afternoonIt's a nice, sunny, warm Saturday…
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996 0 0
|
The paper
in his typewriter
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996 0 0
|
A sweltering heat sits on the field like a fog failing to move. From the diamond, you were able to see the Chicago skyline poking above the apartment buildings like antennas, sending signals all throughout the world.
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995 2 1
|
As the patter of our passing feet fades.
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995 2 1
|
We were fleeing Hurricane Katrina
We stopped somewhere in Texas at a roadside diner
But found a sign that said it was closed
All of a sudden as we sat there in our car
The shop’s owner knocked on the window
And asked what he could get for us
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995 11 6
|
macho bucks in velvet defy you driving down the lane
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995 0 0
|
The men stir around so aimlessly
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995 3 0
|
“Hello, I’m Marlene, and this is April,” says the older of two women. Both Marlene and April wear ankle length dresses. The name Hester Prynne flashes through my mind.
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995 5 5
|
My God is not a God of chance, she said.The year was youth and it was our first dance.She wanted to make sure we agreedlove is for God and lust is for Satan.Of course I do, I said. You're safe with me.Neither of us had moves and were relievedto stand in the corner and…
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995 0 0
|
Petroleum products leaked from her shattered hull, still stinking of a battle its leaders not only lost, but forfeited.
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995 12 5
|
That some adults believed the drill would save/
us from the blast of fusioned hydrogen//
amused us as we quietly curled along
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995 3 1
|
I killed it.
Didn't even relocate it back to its outdoor home, as I had work to do.
This is being human.
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994 5 5
|
for Melissa together today. I like that feeling. I want to pound a piano into the ground just for you. To your warmest heartbeat I raise my glass. Thank you. It doesn't really matter if they think that's a velvety Elvis…
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994 3 0
|
there are nights when you're all alonein the darkwhere the only lightis the glow of the computer screenand words can't seem the scratchthe surface of your skulland bit by bitthe sentences, phrases, and lettersattached to your synapsesdrownin your subconscious
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994 17 14
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My real parents lived about 200 miles in the other direction from where we came. But long ago I determined they were too real.
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994 4 4
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or do we tickle each other's private stocks of fancy instead? I know which one I would choose, but so do you, and that's how the question's always changing places with the wrongheaded answer's velcro-lined vest, bullet to blasting…
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994 5 4
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Fat, religious, full of himself,
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994 0 0
|
It was the same table they met and fell in love.
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994 13 6
|
I learned He was a Schmuck when, on/
the mountaintop, with Abraham,/
I waited on His call: one Isaac, neat.
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