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The Island

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There is an island behind the house in which I grew up. It is a network of bicycle paths and booby traps. The past is snared there.

Maisie Dear

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Maisie dear, I can't forget her-- I only wish her poems were better.

Yesterday

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played-out

show the soul its own beauty

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Go ahead, show the soul its own beauty. But also tell me again about my own, so I may know I lived, and loved you. The one who shows the soul its own touching beauty gets to keep her. Who shows her the golden nightly song that's given us life, is like t

soliciting your help with my answering machine (part 1)

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Hello, writers, readers, friends, discerner's of subtlety, freedom fighters for truth, emotional fairness and proper punctuation. I am soliciting your feedback on my answering machine message. I want this to be an answering machine announcement to audio-book…

A Pita Full Tale

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My distinguished white-haired boss sat behind a table at the entrance of the building and gave me a forbidding look. You’re fired, he said. Get out.

The Old Man of the Mountain

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I care little for innocence. I prefer the breath of dragons to the silhouettes of apes.

The Endless Dream of Humanity

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I may have walked across the sacred line That separates me from the rest of mankind But I already paid my dues So, what club do I get into? When I wake up And the wild rain of dreaming Ends I discover that Guilt is just another four-le

The Numerous Uses of the Middle Finger

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They’ve got sketches for The invention of the middle finger At the Museum for The Gathering Clouds of Innocence So, why not go there and get a feeling For the meaning behind everything? Okay, here’s the truth I was so busy giving people th

A Journal of the Plague Year: Day 76: Specters of the Sixties

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" If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stomping on a human face--forever." 1984, George Orwell

A Clean Tent

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“No,” he says. A simple lie. “I -” He pushes the sleeping bag off of his legs. Their getaway reset was a mistake.

From the Plague Year 2020 Part 2

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So today was basically mellow. The blue jays argued over who would bathe first in my fountain. When a squirrel showed up, the birds left, but the doves took their place. Our local woodpecker, apparently recovered from a day long headbanging session, returned to the…

poetry seductress

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And then there was this girl from Boston, named Pat, who was a little on the hefty side and wouldn’t get off me. And I was skinny then too. She wanted sex so much and so often that the whole time I visited her apartment in Cambridge, after I graduated f

The Optimist

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If people were more loyal to me we wouldn't be having all these problems.

passing in, passing out

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I hate turnstiles and revolving doors

The Summer Of My Beautiful Idiocy

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In the summer of '68 my father persuaded me to go visit my grandparents on their farm in North Dakota. I had long hair and dressed like a French symbolist outlaw. Took the train to Minot, spent the night in a hotel (watching Your Cheatin' Heart, movie about Hank…

Dead Center

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Mask the stench/ with frankincense.

Guy Who's in Love With Modern Notions of Love and a Good Thing Happens to Him After a Bad Thing

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Vince did a dance of love and courtship around the Camaro moving crab-like around it with his arms hung low, raising them only to lower his sunglasses.

Scientists Find Sock Drawers in Disarray as New Year's Eve Nears

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Jeremy starts "dialing-for-dates" shortly after Thanksgiving to make sure he has someone to ring in the New Year with, but his scientific mind noticed a disturbing pattern after his initial round of phonecalls this fall.

For You, For Me

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...mark every buoy...

A Cloud of Words for Winter

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What I would say

English Leather Aftershave

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I just can't figure out why nothing terrible happened to me that night. Young, blonde, drunk American girl sitting on a dirty curb in the red light district of Nuevo Laredo, and everyone left me alone ... amazing.

What Exactly Does Heaven Look Like?

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So what exactly does heaven look like? They asked. He first found himself floating above clouds before witnessing “transparent, shimmering beings arced across the sky, leaving long, streamer-like lines behind them.” An unknown female companion esc

on the morning of my final

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And there was one girl from Ireland, with her thick Irish brogue, who came into my bedroom early on the morning before my final exam for my Masters degree in the writing program at Irvine. She knew I was so nervous about taking the exam that I hadn’t sl

Arcana Magi Zero + Pure - c.15

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The Series Finale of 'Arcana Magi Zero' and 'Arcana Magi Pure'

Tired After Looking for my Voice Recorder for an Hour

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I wrote a million lines of poetry last night. / Metaphor after metaphor of your beauty

Grand

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The garden grew tomatoes.

Bad Boys

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Her name was Carrie. And yes, it was love at first sight. Yes, she was a client, and you were supposed to keep your hands off the clients. Everyone in real estate knew that. She came into my office and took a seat in the reception area. I had a listin

In the Dark

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In the dark I rode naked feeling quite exposed...

Deliverance

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Bleeding quietly