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Pie

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Some folks say your hands can tell the story of your life. Well, my hands cain't talk, but they've made so many pies, I bet they could do it themselves if you cut 'em off and gave 'em the right ingredients, I sure do.

Irreversible Dad

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"It's irreversible."

Jesus Wept

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When my husband died, I was in bed with his brother. Ricky and I had been married six years, three months and two days when his little brother, Ben, and I gave in to the lust that just would not go away in spite of our prayers and tears.

I Am Not a Corpse

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A corpse cannot cry.

THE LOVE DIET

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On the first day of my diet, I only cheated once. But I sort of made up for it by taking the stairs at work and parking far away from the entrance to J.C. Penney. I went to the mall to look at the sexy outfits I would buy as soon as I could get rid of

MY Last Lecture: Achieving MY Childhood Dreams

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The following is an excerpt of my commencement speech at The Hamlin Refrigeration Vocational Institute. Although I am NOT terminally ill, in all honesty, I haven’t been feeling all that great since, I would say, around April…

Bob Dylan, Republican Party Animal

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That’s right–Bob Dylan, ne Robert Allen Zimmerman–will be riding shotgun with me as we head north to fight the good fight against the Democratic Party’s war on women.

The Death of Your Brother

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Suddenly a downpour erupted again, just like it did earlier in the morning. Clouds came out of nowhere, and it became a deluge. It felt like things including our tiny trailer were going to start floating around the nudist camp. Gina held back the little c

To The Woman Who Sat With Her Back To The Door

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Such a curious smell in the air tonight: part skunk, part fire, part rubber of your tire, pulled liquid hot across that road.

Three Mississippi Fictions

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When I was sixteen, my dad’s new wife and her daughter, Mary Ann, moved in, so I had to get out. I found a burned-out one story place on Corey Road near the gas plant. When it wasn’t raining, you could see right up through the roof to the stars.

Potato Mash

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Foxes haunted her dreams. Islands full of foxes, truckloads of vixen.

Odds Are

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We're on a bench in the park under some trees close to the carousel when she tells me I can't count on having a career as a professional gambler.

Librarians! Are You A Book Whisperer, A Truth Wizard, Or an Information Goddess?

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I'm not a librarian. I'm an Information Goddess.

Whiplash Marriage

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I had a dream the daylight needed / repainting.

The Weight of Water

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Water and its damages followed Bianca. Every time she looked up. Everywhere she looked up. Up up up up. Water stains, in darkening whorls, curling across the drywall or fiberglass panels, filling them with rot and mold.

Dog Horse Man

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His appearance had never suggested health, but his body had once been fleshy, his skin pale and soft because he never went outside in the daytime.

Story for Ned's Edit

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Two nights before his heart burst its strings near sundown Shabbat, we met at my house to wait for paint to dry. We could make an evening of that.

sex at antioch

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the definition of beauty is easy

How to Make Love to a Woman

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There's just no pleasing her.

Daddy Walked the Pits

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Seems like the tar just got hold of Daddy somehow. What is it about asphalt and a man?

Salmon of Wisdom (novel excerpt, Jimmy Gollihue)

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Honey, you eat this salmon, now

While the Light Lasts

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Smoke from bodies aflame tongues the strung moon;

How Dinner With John Updike Ruined My Teaching Career

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Christmas Eve, 1989, I had dinner with John Updike.

La insistencia de Jürgen Fauth

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¿Qué habrá sucedido durante la invisible noche que se abre tras el sueño, esa Narnia en porciones individuales, para que el día se haya bestido, y con urgencia, de ira?Como si tubiera las manos bañadas en resina, intento limpiarme los ojos a zarpazos del filtro que…

The Cake for God

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is all but invisible. Some say this is because it is within a bakery window, a bakery within a bakery, and thus appears to be everywhere at once.The cake for God has never been eaten, except by children who seem to later forget what it tasted like.…

Mutant

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The fallout came tangled with snow. We thought the sea would protect us. But it came from New Mexico greasy with Plumbbob’s vaporized pigs.

Waiting for Big Bird

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Jonathan jumps up from his seat, knocking over his mug of coffee, when Mona tells him she thinks she is in labor.

13 Crimes Against Love, or, the Crow's Confession

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He's kneeling on the floor of his West Village apartment, by the door, asking me to leave. He first said he saw someone once a week. But what he means is that they sleep together every night, as they live together, and spend their Sundays together.

Adagio

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... must we turn again (and again)/ to an orchestra stripped of wind and drum?

Multiple Simultaneous Submissions

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He looked at the receiver in his hand as it hummed its dead-line song. His hand shook. Shit, he thought.