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Kneecapping the Muse

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In 1997, I was exploring a used bookstore in Camden, New Jersey, when I stumbled across a two-volume hardback copy of The Dictionary of the Khazars by Milorad Pavić, a book I had been meaning to read since it came out in 1984. At $10.00 for the set, I couldn't pass up…

and dark blood flowed out of our youth

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I remember this shot taken of you in a bright blue summer dress, with your arms spread out, leaning against a wood fence near the beach, or by Lincoln Park maybe, your thin body leaning back and long blonde hair down bare arms. Other men will remember h

cities like sepia and the second half of the dusk

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The source of things has broken open and that is why everything is around and about. I keep trying to tell you that but you don't believe it. No worries. If you are self-actualized and going in a routine, well, such is well enough. But I am telling you that I…

gravelortian part 8

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When I come to we are by the lake

Not today, you crab!

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My single sculling boat was not made to take the impact of a pickup.

the sweet lunar springs

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Check the sweet lunar springs that we are still bathing in. The swelling in the genitals there. Check to make sure we are ripe, and in season. It’s our way of being willing, strong under the sweet icy waters, with that fertility that is derived from you

Trick Horse

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The trick rider arches

Pirate

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When I got out I didn't buya new suit of clothes, stepinto a bar, or bargainfor an hour with a whore.I walked from McGee Streetover to Russell and wonderedif Bus 16 still went out of its wayto loop around the traffic knotat the shopping mall. It'd drop you thereif you had…

@Hearts

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The space heater whirred in the lonesome room, the giant, square window bathing the room with moonlight, and Lawrence sat on the naked particle board and ruminated upon the vast importance and significance that this very room would lend his mega-empire of a business which…

Marshmallow

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The razor finds hair, and cuts, eats away at the layers of hair I've built up since 16. Built up these layers of hair. Built up layers of hair. Big ears. Big layers of big hair to cover up big ears. First thing I got was this haircut. Haircut the moment I got in here.…

Ten lines inspired by a lecherous man ...

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A hymn for her when his head cocks shameless.

Bum on a Stoop in Paris with a Bald Head in the Rain

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Bum on a Parisian stoop begging with his big Jackson Pollack bare head in the rain The water running in streaks all over his brain Reminding him of a painting He once thought of Keep going, you’re coming back again. Get out of the car wrec

Years of Co-Dependency

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The next thing I knew, the waiter was pouring wine into all our glasses. “How did you know we needed more wine?” I asked. His face grew red as he smiled, “Many years of co-dependency, honey.”

the rest of sleep

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peripheral dreams fall out from the head / the body squirms then burrows abed: / “have you had a good life? you now have less! / —led a hard life instead? you soon will be gone!”

Salesman

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A salesman, a born salesman like my brother, is always and only involved in the Moment, and it is the sale itself that is at the heart of the moment, and my brother Harris was really at the top of his form as a salesman. It can probably best be said, th

The Last Will And New Testament Of Henry J. Worthmore, Jr.

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I, Henry J. Worthmore, Jr., being of sound mind and failing health in my 73rd year do hereby set down in words this final and irrefutable disposal of all my worldly goods.

The Web

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The vibration of my cell phone on the nightstand shakes my brain awake. It always does. These are the times it bothers me most. When I am in that deep sleep. The kind of sleep you fall in, after you wake up the first time and then roll back over in the early…

The Fourth Prague Defenestration: Prologue

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My first and so far only visit to my homeland of Prague was first described to me by a tourist guidebook, which laid out many of the fundamentals one must follow while travelling there. It was pointed out, for instance, that we would be “unlikely to enc

Breaking Up, Chicago Style, On Hardwood Floors

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We shut the door of her new apartment while Andy went back down to the car for one last load. Terry went into the bathroom and pissed blue. Blue, for God’s sake! Some pills she was taking. But she came back into the living room completely naked and pulled

Maybe I'm Not Totally Non-Violent

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I knew this woman would come up eventually. She used to wait on us at Villa Nova, while a bunch of us sat drinking

True Story, Every Word

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So, I see this is story one-upmanship now. You think you’ve got stories! Here’s one for the books. Here goes! In 1968 I had a day job as a payroll clerk at the Kroger Company, but, to maintain my glamorous lifestyle and my impressive efficiency ap

Bruegel days, nights by Bosch

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no matter where we sit or how we stare— / all parades now march away to one day.

Morning Concerto

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the continuous racket, a buzz saw trumpet

When I was little

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I was little, very little, when Happiness went away. I moved the entire earth, walked in the ferns, poked in the river. Happiness had disappeared. I looked to the sky. I remember, the sun had the porous face of an orange. Not unlike my skin. My eyes fixed above, I saw it…

Red

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There's a boarded up Chevron a few blocks down the street from where I used to live. I still pass it every now and again as I'm going to and from jobs. When I lived in the area, which was about three years ago, there was this one red-headed female gas jockey that seemed to…

Naming the Scourge We Made

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To give proper credit where due, one name suffices for what humanity likely will be dealing with for decades or centuries to come, and that name is “Technogenic Climate Change”.

Sometimes It Rained

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He always felt safe with a gun in his hands. Back home anyway. Russ was from a rural part of South Carolina. A place where you could brush the humidity away from your face with your hand and drink down sweet tea in glasses so big, it cooled your toes. He was not…

dancers: degas

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What we see is the aspiration of flesh to beauty not the fact, which may be ugly. That the light pours down on them, as they wait in the wings to go on stage. The cool and warm pastels separating on their flesh. Green and white above, warm red a

Back Story

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I wanted you in the worst way but that's not how I got you.

Tournament Legend

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Man I can hit a shot from forty feet. Snap! No rim. You can’t.