2316 21 9
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to say that he was
doing fine
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2315 0 0
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“… and that concludes my presentation. I’ll be happy to answer any questions you might have.”
Meixu Liao smiled and turned her hands out, palms upwards. Americans typically saw this combination of facial expression and body language as conveyin
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2315 8 4
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All the neighborhood kids waited for the school bus on a small cement slab at the bottom of the first big hill on Blackhorse Road. My mother made me scrambled egg sandwiches on wheat toast every morning for breakfast before I left for school. Then one mor
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2314 9 7
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when unicorns took to flight / the poles shifted / the world flooded / and Pangaea busted open like calloused palm
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2314 6 7
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The doorbell rang while Ron was masturbating.He closed his eyes tight. Tried to hold the image of Lori bent over the arm of the couch. No use. It was gone. Ron sighed, then levered the recliner down. Tied on the terry-cloth robe Lori had given him. He kicked aside an empty…
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2314 2 0
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Alysia never said a word as she rested her body on Suzaku’s feathers. She felt the wings cover her like a blanket. It brought memories of her mother doing the same as they watched a movie together on the couch.
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2314 10 3
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Several friends—hers and his—hung around the edges of their marriage, and it would be naive to rule out the possibility of a few stray affairs. The thought didn’t anger him; on the contrary it amused him as if it were some trivia question, the answe
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2313 6 3
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She...learned the ways of men, especially foreign men, who eyed her mother even as they passed around pictures of their children, wallet-bound photographs that included their reluctantly smiling wives.
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2312 6 4
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burning for You, caught in between, yearning to remain completely wrapped around Your finger, feeling panoramic, and this alive.
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2312 25 14
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And you know that notion just goes to show...
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2312 4 2
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“Can you do something about that those four stanzas of three lines each at the bottom of the basement steps?” my wife asked.
"That's a villanelle I'm working on."
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2312 17 7
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To make extra money, my father wrote music reviews for the Calgary Herald, and on Saturday nights, he went to hear the Symphony, or into recital halls to listen to the chamber music that was being performed around the city. He took me, once, to a performa
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2311 13 8
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I still believe in the very slim chanceI might say something luckyenough to reach your truest insides, your at homespirit, that you will hearand understand ascare on my part, evenif you can never quiteidentify me asits secret sender, that warm…
|
2311 4 4
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You’re ridiculous. Time travel is impossible, Steven.
|
2310 6 5
|
Daniel told himself to push. -- push harder than he'd ever pushed himself before. He reminded himself of what his father once told him: don't give in to pain. Be a real man. You can take it.
|
2310 4 2
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You like your life. Ducks march in a row. You've reached a certain age but you're strong. Healthy. You've got food, clothing, shelter. You have insurance and important papers. You don't have a man in your life, and you admit— Admit nothing. The…
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2309 12 11
|
pressing my hands into the voice in the bed,
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2309 14 4
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He had the cannonball head of Hemingway, the stump neck, sloping shoulders and barrel chest.
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2309 15 14
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The mandatory is not / your friend
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2308 9 5
|
You are lonely. Let me tell you about the smell of the rain.
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2308 35 14
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AFTER DINNER Another cycle gone, wasted. She stares into her bowl of full-fat ice cream (just half a cup a day, every day, for fertility). Beside her sits her husband, building a sundae. When he's done she reaches over, picks the cherry off the top, and hurls it into the…
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2307 6 3
|
I slide my hand under the sheets. It’s cool there. An impression. This is where she would be.
|
2306 1 1
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Let's be honest. Ugly people have an uphill battle in this culture. From the time they slide out of their ugly mothers they stand at the plate with two strikes.
|
2306 15 12
|
This is the best kind of crime scene.
Spattered like gore from gunshots,
I'm left covered in trace evidence.
|
2306 2 0
|
Berto had come to live with me a month earlier. He’d been cursed by being the favored child of our parents. Their indulgence resulted in a 40 year old man and heroin addict from age 17 and all that accompanies such an existence such as thievery, larcen
|
2306 8 5
|
You may gather from me
the spring of my youth
|
2306 24 16
|
He would lean on his window sill in the evening and watch the whores. They wore gaudy clothes and too much makeup.
|
2305 1 1
|
|
2305 2 2
|
“What’s a hushpuppy?” 264 asked 118, who knew three words of English.
118 said, “No.”
|
2305 43 14
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Tuesdays she worked afternoons at the bookstore, and he’d secretly go, buy a large order, sit in a corner with a newspaper. Fries covered in vinegar, veins of ketchup.
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