2288 43 14
|
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.
|
228885
|
Albert Walks When Albert walks he is astonished. Ripe fruit falls to the ground at his feet, offering itself. The earth's tremor rumbles, celebratory, through his mended shoes and up his shins. The birds darting through the sky above …
|
228810
|
I was getting ready to eat a thick peanut butter and grape jelly sandwich when a blue spider pushed up a corner of the bread from the inside and said, "Don't chomp, don't chew! We're in here, we're having a good time, and we don't feel like being eaten.
|
2288177
|
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
|
228841
|
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.
|
228720
|
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
|
22872416
|
He would lean on his window sill in the evening and watch the whores. They wore gaudy clothes and too much makeup.
|
228797
|
when unicorns took to flight / the poles shifted / the world flooded / and Pangaea busted open like calloused palm
|
228721
|
In the blue of the yard the twins boil and scrape,
twisting about beneath the sycamore tree.
|
228763
|
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.
|
228642
|
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…
|
228695
|
You are lonely. Let me tell you about the smell of the rain.
|
228575
|
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
|
22851512
|
This is the best kind of crime scene.
Spattered like gore from gunshots,
I'm left covered in trace evidence.
|
228511
|
You are fishing in a coffee cup. (Your fishing pole is a record player.)
|
228453
|
“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.”
|
22842117
|
There is a tall and leafy tree in our backyard. Also a bride, a groom, and a chicken.
|
228342
|
“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."
|
2283135
|
“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.
|
228263
|
I slide my hand under the sheets. It’s cool there. An impression. This is where she would be.
|
228231
|
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…
|
228211
|
|
228100
|
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.
|
2280138
|
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…
|
228020
|
I was afraid of needles and ponds of water and I was transfixed by both.
|
228011
|
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.
|
228010
|
It's possible I was having an acid flashback or some kind of semi-conscious when I opened the door of #3.
|
2280183
|
Male genitals were usually portrayed diminutively in classical art. After forty minutes in a drafty room without cloths on, I was beginning to understand why.
|
22791410
|
. . . and the last thing you’ll smell will be new-cut pine.
|
227966
|
The light, oblique and waning, filters through butcher’s paper to reveal a body suspended in death but never decomposing.
|
