81 2 2
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8100
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William Walsh Queen Anne's "Gentleman of the Horse," poet and friend of Alexander Pope thought Caelia proved cruel for not giving him the toy he begged. So he wrote in The Despairing Lover. William Walsh …
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8000
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Maria Summer afternoon I love you I have good news The last day of school I long not to long Your eyes, absorbing not reflecting More like a garnet Not a ruby Thundergrowled danger Tinglethumb
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8022
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I kicked your dog, Yes I did, I kicked your dog I kicked your dog Because it urinated on my Afghan rug It bit my maid and it ate my frog It defecated on Shakespeare's sonnet, barked at my psychedelic parrot, salivated over Norman Mailer's bust, snapped at…
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7821
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Dried swirls of burgundy on the wine glass, sunlight from the wide window glittering from an edge on the stemware lip as she made her entrance, just then looking none the worse for wear, a blessing of youth to hide damage until it shows on the face, especially around…
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7732
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We shared a bedroom, my sister and I, all our lives through high school. This was unfortunate, as she was extremely neat and I, two years older, was extremely messy. In my defense, I was extremely clean and she was not. There is a…
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7610
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Limpets squat on rock each in its own spot made to fit where a taut muscular …
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7500
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The slick compartments of chilli peppers and spiced corn and onions and mustard were barely visible through the bodies and rings of hair and soft loops of arms, and the thick meaty gassy air and the late summer air pushed the tent in on itself and I felt
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7411
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I took this workshop once. A Life Fulfillment Seminar provided by J___ Mutual Funds. That was the kind of thing the guy talked about: Motivational Factors putting you Over the Top.
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71124
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I am one of 14.8 million Americans affected by depression or about 6.7% of the American population 16 and older. My episodes are cyclical and my first episode was at age 16. I assumed it was because my mother was sent to Auschwitz at 16 …
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6921
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6700
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‘Sometimes I look down, over this railing –’
—cars zipping tiny and soundless, the roads curling and the roofs speckled with white-hot skylights, dark mottled patches of repair, no stakes, no people, no noise –
‘ –and I consider jumping. Sitting on
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6510
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“Now let's just start again, real slowly, and from the very beginning,” the taller darker investigator leaned across the desk and spoke directly to the young male bank teller, face-to-face, “you say that she was attractive then — this,…
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6421
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"Hell - whoa?"
"Larry, it's Margot. Is that you?"
"Yeth."
"Why are you talking like that?"
"Ah bit off the tip of my ton."
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6166
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6011
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I was sitting on the steps in the entryway to our apartment building taking off my running shoes when I spotted a paperclip on the floor. I assumed it had fallen from the mail that my wife had just taken from our mailbox. Once my shoes were removed, I went down to pick…
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5970
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Had a girl in 1968, an Ohio dairy farmer's daughter, and when she finally invited me to dinner with her folks, they passed the pitcher with the fresh milk. When I poured it, clots of butterfat fell into my glass with big splashes; while they watched me looking at that…
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5873
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My daughter, now four, can count to 15 in Spanish. How old are you? Cuatro. How old will you be on your birthday? Cinco. She likes Dora and thinks Diego is weird.
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5410
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The kiss is long, excitement builds, her surrender incremental, the seduction approaches a shattering peak... and you awake to find yourself tonguing a wet spot on your pillow.Back to sleep, and you are flying without wings, sharing face time with old heroes and role…
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5421
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5200
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When Roger opened the closet door, several guns fell forward at his feet. Most of them were rifles, weapons his stepfather had collected over three wars. Wooden bolt-action carbines, with worn leather shoulder straps, of this caliber and of that caliber. Both…
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4900
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Richard played the piece again, slowly, fingers stretching for the high notes while the left hand kept the bass line moving. Then the theme, both hands hard. The notes on the score blurred, every phrase reminding him of a different melody from a long-forgotten time and…
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4900
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Around and down the curved slope of slippery embankment walked the young black male deer, lifting only one leg from each side, front-to-back then back-to-front, leaning to-and-aft, diagonally digging the heels of his alternate hooves into the quick caramel mud. …
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4810
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The trucker saw his opportunity; he grabbed the waitress's arm and said, "Hello, arm!""Hello," said Mary Lou, "and goodbye heart!""Arrest me, darlin', this is love in the first degree. Tie me to a tree, make me write bad checks..."The customer seated at the front table had…
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4800
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Starting in his '60's, brain gravity began setting in, and the sand castles started pouring down from the sky like so much rain. That's when he opened his eyes, rubbing in disbelief. This was a risk worth taking. Its time had come and had, in fact, been patiently…
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4622
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4610
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Peter had recently cracked his tooth chewing ice. It was the top left molar, not the far back one, but the one just in front of that. His dental insurance covered most of the extraction but none of the implant. An artificial tooth was considered cosmetic, and they…
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4600
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She breaks away and goes toward the water. The cold screams up through her feet and her knees nearly give out, and she wants to pause, to yell her ear-splitting wordless pain, but she follows the moon out into the Lake. She lurches forward, gasping with e
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4640
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“This is what we'll do. We'll bury him so his body will never be found. How? That's the question.” Bob made another short, narrow lap around the trailer's living room slash kitchenette while unwrapping his sixth stick of Big Red gum and jamming it into his mouth…
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4200
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"I've never told anyone this before, Luis," Gus flipped the quarter in the air, catching it deftly as he finished his cerzesa, wiped his mouth with the back of his burn-scarred hand, "And that's how we got away with everything: the money, the girl, and the crime. You got…
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