2295 17 7
|
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
|
229563
|
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.
|
229541
|
As I stood in my mother’s closet with my niece Chloe, and read the letter aloud, I was shocked to discover I had shared with my mother details about my love life.
|
229485
|
Watch me sleep. Say I'm lovely, marbled-white. Pretend my forest is other to me. Pretend I am what you have made me. The sugar-almond starlet. Your virgin. Your treasure to break into. Believe me unconscious. It is you who are the dreamer. Look how those thorny…
|
229442
|
“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."
|
229420
|
Well, I turn the car off, the song turns off, I gather all of my stuff, turn off my lights, inevitably drop something as I’m getting out of the car, shut the door, lock the car, fumble for my house key, walk up the stairs, unlock the front door, set my
|
229497
|
when unicorns took to flight / the poles shifted / the world flooded / and Pangaea busted open like calloused palm
|
22931710
|
He kissed her tits and thought of art
|
22921614
|
ornery women / in tall hats, suspender dads, kids deformed with / ribbons
|
229253
|
“I take him to see all those sexy movies,” she said, “because it puts the passion back in him. I love what he does to me when we get back home after those movies.”
|
2292135
|
“The price of everything's gone up,” I say. “But I don't have to buy you chocolate if it's costing too much.” She says nothing and bends her head again, gnarled hands slowly breaking a family-sized chocolate block into pieces.
|
229242
|
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…
|
229295
|
You are lonely. Let me tell you about the smell of the rain.
|
229100
|
“Stay there Alysia!” Brie said from behind as she ran toward them. The Sentinel used Alysia’s back as a step and launched herself into the air with Legacy over her head.
|
22912416
|
He would lean on his window sill in the evening and watch the whores. They wore gaudy clothes and too much makeup.
|
229011
|
You are fishing in a coffee cup. (Your fishing pole is a record player.)
|
229031
|
Dear Mom, You told me the connection between a mother and her son is like no other connection. You carried me for nine months. You scheduled visits with the doctor; you thought and discussed and re-thought and re-discussed with dad what my name would be; you…
|
22892117
|
There is a tall and leafy tree in our backyard. Also a bride, a groom, and a chicken.
|
228875
|
His open door was interpreted by the neighbor as an invitation to all but place a mirror under his nose. She demanded opportunities to fluff his pillows and coerced him into accepting gifts of food, more than he could possibly eat, and sometimes ate with
|
2288138
|
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…
|
22881512
|
This is the best kind of crime scene.
Spattered like gore from gunshots,
I'm left covered in trace evidence.
|
228811
|
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.
|
228811
|
|
228763
|
I slide my hand under the sheets. It’s cool there. An impression. This is where she would be.
|
228700
|
One of the runners was collecting bags of dead animals to bring back to the van. Nicholas looked inside one of the bags, but all he saw was a stringy mess of fur and tissue.
The runner grabbed the bag from Nicholas. He shrugged and said "hammers.
|
2287175
|
I turn my head. Time starts running.
|
228571
|
In Nebraska, we found a dead man lying between the furrows of a field. He’d been there awhile in the heat and the sun, the only shade provided by a cloud of flies. The dead man lay on the ground, decaying, disappearing into the dirt:
|
228510
|
"Isn't it time to remove the nails, and put Jesus to rest once and for all," Mary asks.
|
228520
|
I was afraid of needles and ponds of water and I was transfixed by both.
|
228510
|
It's possible I was having an acid flashback or some kind of semi-conscious when I opened the door of #3.
|
