562 2 2
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I found Marty sitting out on a neighbor’s front porch across the street from his house, which was next door to mine. He was sort of crouched down, early one morning as I headed off to work at the paint factory down in West Berkeley. I wasn’t absolutely su
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561 2 1
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Our flesh was on fire like a flute with wind, or a little reed next to the dried river. I was like a voyeur whose heart was a sponge, brushing up against all that disturbed man. I was only and ever the flower of our notorious youth, aware of more than the
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561 4 1
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“I’ve decided to make some money by filming some of it, making a film and titling it The Nascar 500. It’s a great money maker and here's the gimmick: instead of the usual porn soundtrack it would be the sounds of stock cars racing around the track.
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561 3 2
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the drive-ins now are dead and gone /
where once we laught through splatter films: / our screens too small, our horrors do not fit— / no monumental screens are left, / no close-ups show us what we think we fear.
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560 6 3
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McMurdo Sound. Amundsen. Penguins huddled in a mass...
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559 4 4
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I threw my cards on the table. The jerk was playing his classical records again. I could hear that lousy music a mile away and he was the kind of kid that makes your skin crawl. But he had a CD sound system and it was up loud this time so that the house
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559 4 3
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Daylight and cold sensed as an abstract, a number in my mind. Air thin, polluted, lacking oxygen. But the Recyclers are at it again.
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559 2 2
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"Why?" is the question I ask, but no one is around to answer. What would an answer change anyway? But it is all I can do. So it is all I can do.
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558 3 0
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Bands:
Free Blankie
My First Dustbuster
Sledge Hammer
Glove Compartment
Hot Weather Lady
Cattle Prod and the Punks
The Cowpokes
Poker
Two Fingers In
Occupy This
Tidy Up
Goal Keeper and The Kneecaps
Leslie Sweet And The Kitchen
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558 4 2
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The End of Civilization as We Know It
Question is, how many carpets did you see flying in close formation?
Question is, which hand would you use
If you were asked to choke yourself for the sake of civilization?
The real question is, if you could
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557 12 10
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Over a decade of late nights and alcohol fueled anger, and still, sometimes some image or smell would click the panic button,
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557 2 1
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As has happened many times in my life, I heard his voice in my sleep and I saw him, though only briefly. Over the years I have seen this man I thought was him clearly and known when he was in danger – a car wreck at twenty (I was correct on everything b
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556 0 0
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Pope Leo XIII endorsed a cocaine-based drink and at the age of 90 sat in on “The Last Castrato, Complete Vatican Recordings.”
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555 1 1
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I wanted none of her. But also that day I had just finished The Story of 0., and my mind was full of sadistic whimsies and the mood of anythingness that the book instills: the pound of fleshness. Anyway, I sneered at her and told her she bored me, and sat
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555 3 1
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He tilted his head at his monitor and exhaled “No.” Minutes later, he tilted his head the other way and more sharply exclaimed “No!” Then he began over the next quarter hour simply to stare at the data stream before him, which left him speechless.
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554 0 1
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A man learns too late
How small deer laugh
It’s true
When a man goes mad
Ropes come down from the clouds
He cannot be sure of anything
Anything
The way’s uncharmed
He thinks someone else’s strange thoughts
And it all seems a simple
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554 0 0
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It’s the longing from another life inside that pulls me along by the fine hairs below my navel, exposed at the midriff, and by the short fine hair at my neck, also the dense bunch between my legs, as you might imagine. And it’s the longing of the love I
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553 4 3
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The misspent effort reposed spontaneously, a prank worth ending with the dog letter: “GrrrrrrrR!”
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553 1 0
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It's just me.An October afternoon.Ocean and Ocean and Ocean. if you keep looking, down the coastthere is fog.Only fog and me and sea.I imagine him before I see him.Slow walk just above the water line, the fog catching up behind him,fantastical cape.The rational…
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552 5 4
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(Sung to the melody of "Ghostbusters")When your prose is weakMetaphors clichésWho you gonna callGhostwriters!Characters they speakNot much to sayWho you gonna callGhostwriters!I ain't ‘fraid of no rejectionI ain't ‘fraid of no rejectionLyin' in your bedImagination soarsWho…
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550 7 2
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Fire skates ascended out of the Skyscraper State _________________.
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550 2 2
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“Have the tomatoes come in yet?”“Dottie…”Mrs. Dorothea Tilden pointed a trembling finger at Harriet.“You promised me tomatoes, Harry.”Harriet put her hands on her hips, a stance Dorothea knew well. One more sharp word meant fight; two…
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548 3 2
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muse of my heart, with each palace in love: / when Januaries lash with storm and sleet, / their dread dark nights all muffled in bright snows, / will you find coals to warm your purpled feet?
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546 0 0
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So many traps for catching female poets have been invented that it is a rare editor who ever really sees one.
H.L. Mencken
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544 4 2
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"Polio?" people wondered. They asked: "Is that contagious?" Nobody knew. It was 1953. The epidemic raged on. Children in some towns were being made to stay indoors during the polio season for fear that the disease was airborne. It was putting an unnatura
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544 13 5
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Dawn is spreading its pink and blue colours over the morning. Pleasant hues, with children playing and birds chattering. A light morning, without commitments, without waves, open to promises. Mornings don't speak our language and don't make the same gestures. They speak a…
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544 0 0
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Crosses sitting on the hillside
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544 2 1
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I look good
Together
Got these penny wings
I could actually fly with
It all becomes so clear
Sound goes down
Sanity returns in an instant
The night is bigger...
I’d rather stay near the ground
I’m not a practicing angel
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543 5 1
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Prologue Late at night, an old man named Drevin Philpott stands on the deck of a cruise ship, looking out at the sea. The man is hunched and very small. His arms and legs are thin and he's got a bowling ball for a gut. He's standing on a chair so he can…
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543 4 3
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So how do I know all this about Sammy, you ask? I’m getting to that...
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