Most read stories

Ballad of Vengeance and Violence

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Two weeks later, on his way to a neighbor boy's house, Tim sees Tony on his way to the nearby convenience store.

The Second Extinction of Chocolate

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Cacao production had always been a tenuous enterprise insofar as commercial cacao tree cultivation had always been limited roughly to the land zones within twenty degrees of the equator north and south.

Studies for Restroom Wall Art

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Sometimes all that’s/ left is pissing

Dungeon

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why were ghosts in wry mirrors feeding on hope?

The View From Jeremy's Butt

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“The usual,” he says, casting implicit scorn on Boston’s B–or is it C-list?–scene. “There’s a TV weatherman who’s trying to impress a hot babe at the bar with the ten-day extended forecast.”

Skull of a Sheep: Revisited

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You are in a car speeding through Dublin towards the West year after year the journey uncoils past the same landmarks Kilmainham Jail strapped to a chair bullet to the brain on by the Rowntree Mackintosh factory where the black and…

Real Time

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November days

Do You Smoke?

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Do you remember buying me a pair of knee-high boots? They laced up the front, I think. Really cool boots. Strange, the stuff you remember. To be truthful, I can't remember exactly what information Sharon and I exchanged about you. I know we didn't get

So, What Happened?

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the bay was littered with corpses

Understanding Poetry, the Hard Way

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My relationship to poetry resembles that of Patty Hearst, the newspaper heiress, to her abductors.

Wake

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At my daughter's wake Mr. Aleford, her teacher, poked out his pointy nose, sniffing my cologne. How could I be plastered with this, at a time like this? Well, dear Sir, Two reasons. One, to hide the booze. And two, because my wife and I had made feverish love that…

The Solace of Olives

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Alone in Eugene, / I sought out / the solace of olives

Butterflies and Fresh Paint

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For PearlSo radiantly a threat to themare you, so radiantly a threatyou present, my dear, but between usthere is still that unspoken pact; justone more song, please. So radiantlyyou fill their cups with the beauty ofleaves and grapes. So radiantly yoursmall reassuring smile…

The writer as pugilist - one more time

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I'm cool. You're not. Attitude is everything in life.

One for the Ages

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It was 1984, that foreboding year, I now recall. You were in the hospital, your cat having snagged your nail.

Spring (An Overture)

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Demeter's daughter comes to her when swings From green turf, all that keener hearth, whose brown Had been more mournful, in its nuptial's crown, Than all the transit buds that seed each Spring: When I, or we, say lateness brings recall, Of…

In Quietude

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For Algernon Afloat, on tidal difference's separated songs Let nothing spare her mention, still belongs That sterile tone mismissioned to my ear What love's illusion balanced most when throngs Of hummingbirds advanced, methinks, to hear…

Yours For a Song

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“You know,” I said finally, “when I’m out in the waiting room, I get high blood pressure when you call my name.”

Sisyphus

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Each day he rolls that goddamned rock,

Jon Bon Joviettes: A Love Letter to the Bistro

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"Oh, sit on my face oh won't you? Your velvety wetness would provide a nice counterpoint to the upholstery of the sofa-matching easy chair, crummy but that's the charm of this hipster-ironic dive playing 80's crap so I have to cram your music in my…

The Caracol, a snapshot

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waves assaulted black volcanic rock in briny harmony

Whose Music Is Written On the Sky

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You walked into the dream world That divides us from each other And removed your clothes And there was no specific language For orgasm there It was all multilingual They were white and fluffy like new clouds Like notes written on the bars

Dateline: Dumbass

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Take a ride past Larry Crane’s 'Jackpot!' recording studio — right here! in the neighborhood! where Sleater-Kinney recorded 'One Beat' and Elliott Smith 'either/or' and Sarah Dougher 'The Walls Ablaze!' woo hoo! — and the kids are singing karaoke.

Fire Skates

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Fire skates ascended out of the Skyscraper State _________________.

Transmigration

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Much reincarnation

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

Blessed

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The first thing Noah did, more or less, was plant a vineyard.

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

Nightbound

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Intimacy is safer in the dark.

To My Future Ghost

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Oh, by the way here’s my old phone number 548-7899 Remember? Call me It will ring somewhere in the past We can make amends