Most read stories

Days of Future, Past

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Though bleached white as snow,/ Eric Cantor’s teeth broke/ much as any others would

Automatically Writ between Meals

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The misspent effort reposed spontaneously, a prank worth ending with the dog letter: “GrrrrrrrR!”

Guidance Counselors Fight Boring Image by Ghost-Riding Their Whips

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“I was talking to kid who hadn’t applied to college, and I asked him why,” Branson says. “He rolled his eyes and said ‘Why go to college if I’m gonna end up a tool like you?’"

Tried

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to rise and rise for you and rise some more and catch the next wave into the slickest part of the new found air of youthful intention. Hard ground seemed to like me a lot more for myselfthan those snobby clouds I was watching, and…

for god's sake, come in me already!

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There were others, too, during those years in the Sixties. I remember hooking up with that JAM girl one more time, when she was married and living in Urbana. They were going to swinger parties at the time, so she wanted to have sex with me once more for

Skull and Bones

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“Okay, so I'm lying naked in this coffin with my big dick out,” George W. Bush says. “Yes!” …

Ice Cutter

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McMurdo Sound. Amundsen. Penguins huddled in a mass...

The Solace of Olives

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

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.

The Boy Who Tamed Wild Things

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The boy had a gift, we understood; he could speak the language of the animals, and so soon there was a skunk that he would walk on a leash.

Battle of the Bulging British Bridesmaids

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A survey by "You & Your Wedding" magazine has determined that one in five British brides now requires her bridesmaids to sign contracts regulating their behavior and appearance.

Blessed

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

that part of life I forgot to live

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You won’t find me shopping at University Housecoats. There’s a vast gulf between being pretty, and pretty dangerous, I’ve learned. Oh yeah, and that part of life I forgot to live? I would live in the past too, if I thought I could re-achieve youth. At s

Strayhorn's "Chelsea Bridge" (Webster/Mulligan)

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The chorus is a melancholy enlightenment; this is all I have, he thinks, the only transcendence I’ll get out of this day. I should seize it while I can.

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…

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

The Men's Chair In the Women's Shoe Department

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We were going shopping, and they put me in the women’s shoe department at Macy’s so I would really have something to write about, and maybe you can imagine what happened. Well, this one woman sits down right in the chair next to me, which I thought a

The Thing

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I look back at Bobby, his wide blue eyes staring at me. A dark shadow on his round baby face also tells me that he isn't entirely convinced if the thing is dead in the first place. Because even the folks buried in the town's only cemetery have a way of co

Crossed

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Their raging energy felt like a unified force that could catapult itself in any direction at a second’s notice, like a heat-seeking missile targeting the next warm body.

Izyum

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The fire was so fierce,so fair like an opal;the most primal burn."Death haunts these trees,"the woman said, as she held the potof beetroot soup above the fire.They spoke from the basement; living in the dark space,nerves too locked up to to look out the windowand…

Peppercorns

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Fertile bodies eye/ the space you occupy,/ impatient for disappearance.

ARE YOU: An ode to overthinking brought on by having too much time to think. To be recited in your best Julie Andrews voice.

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Are you interesting?Are you clever?Are you, maybe often, sometimes never?Are you shining? Pining?Are you glowing?Are you worth knowing?Are you a life without zest?Are you mainlining strife …

The Undercover Kingdom

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If you had on pajamas with pockets you could sneak a handful of animal crackers upstairs, but first you had to get them out of the kitchen.

Still More Rock Groups I have Known

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More Rock Groups I Have Known and/or Been In

The writer as pugilist - one more time

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

Sense and Sensibility Too

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http://fictionique.com/?p=15975

Where did the time go?

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It feels like only a month ago I thought about calling you.Feels like a week ago started an email to send you and didn't.A few days ago that I nearly sent a text.It is almost a year since you killed yourself.Where did the time go?

Inspector of the Dawn

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It is a strange world, dawn. You may find yourself alone with your God, the old, and the young. Very likely a bird. An old one out hobbling past on a cane, a small dog trotting from bush to bush, sniffing a pile of leaves, jumping back, st

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

Soliloquies and Interludes of the Interior Zombies

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As parents watched my skin grow paler, hair/ go raven, and demeanor change from pert/ to smiling calm, they started to complain.