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Messages to Mars

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Babylon Tower is AWESOME! The captain of the ship announced our arrival in time for everyone to view it on the screens. First Class got to view it from the viewing room, and they disembarked first. Steerage got off last. What we saw upon arrival was w

destiny

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destiny

New Year's Eve

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Quail looked up at her. Unsmiling, challenging. Lemme just go wash my hands, he said. She closed the door, bolted it. You won’t need your hands.

End of Daze

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Be it a moment of zen, an epiphany, a vision, or even an ill-tempered chinese food inflicted dream, I've seen what's been shrouded carefully behind you… ahead of me.

Act of Creation

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Mary ran her cake business in a way she could never have run her marriage. It was by appointment only, full deposit, partial refund (and this purely at her own discretion). Business was terrific and she had to turn down job after job. She only made…

For Carol: Life Bursts Out

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Life was small. It was tiny even, so tiny it was hard to see it sometimes. Life curled up to make itself even smaller, to fit into the kinds of holes that insects crawl into to get away from bigger insects. Life was sad. Life didn't want to be an insect.

Of a Friend Whose Brother Died Young

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There was no logic to the thing; he’d left to drive his girl around. She had lived and he had died.

Lottery Ticket

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  Tony sat down in the hotel room with his back against the wall. He had a handsome face, with three-day stubble growing from it, his pupils very large as if frightened by something, or from deep thought. In his hand, was the winning lottery, Periodically he would get up…

The Pre-Game Show With Al and Chris

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Al:In the contest for the Worst Century Ever, the Twenty-first could be a real contender. Chris:The Twentieth looks unbeatable, sure, what with the War to End All Wars, the Great Depression, Hitler, Spain, the Second World War…Al:…Stalin, and Enola Gay. The genocides alone…

Michael & The Reaper

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That sound. Bone against bone. Skin across skin. Blood fraying into the unknown dark. He loved that sound.

Need

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I knew I needed to visit a beach / made entirely of sharks’ teeth

Ignorance

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On the street / The protesters stand / Yelling words empty as wind

sunflower 9

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born to be mistreated by beasts in human shapes

The Fat Girl

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She never leaves her desk, but food appears like magic.

Sometimes everything is depthless.

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There is some debate about what kind of twins they are. It’s a fissure between aesthetics and science.

Plastic Jesus

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Plastic Jesus wears a crown of thorns. I gesture and say: Does that hurt? He says: What do you mean? so I point at his forehead and his hand goes to it and he says O that

Love Thy Neighbor

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The summer I turned fourteen I wanted a job so I could start saving for a car. Actually, I had a job, but it wasn't much. Seventy-five cents…

i dream

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i dream a thousand interconnected pictures. i dream the future. i dream we are together. i dream i love you. i dream i am forgiven. i dream you care. i dream nice dreams. i go to the bank. i deposit my check. i pay the rent. i pet the cat. i…

When Your Poem Becomes Self Aware

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Where will you hide? Because you know it Will seek you out for answers you might Only be asking for yourself. It Will send many students to stand outside Your apartment and chant your name. It will beg you to perform its birth Again to the…

The neighbor's daughter

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Noon sun, like a restless master on my back

A Bear Story

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In the spring, my father would dress for class in a bear costume and chase students around campus.

that picture of you

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Oh my God! The question of whether or not we each have a double has been answered. Yours is living in Louisville, KY. It was you...young you. I already knew it, but seeing your picture just slammed it home. Again. I knew I shouldn't have told you

Norm Bladdon, Private G.I.

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I'd had a long, hard fall from the pinnacle of the profession. I made the mistake of accepting a mouse pad, coffee mug and a fleece pullover with the logo of Upchux, an anti-reflux drug, on the left breast where you'd get heartburn.

A Message from Your Local Superintendent Concerning Sex in Our Public Schools

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Such behavior will result in no disciplinary action only: 1) if all blinds are drawn; 2) all doors are locked; and 3) loud groaning is masked by appropriate use of the volume control on the classroom’s closed-circuit TV set.

For Carol Novack

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Touching one of these special stones will bring out your own unique song.

Christmas Potluck

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"I see how little kids might find you creepy," she says between red velvet bites...

The Broken Lily

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“What was that about?” Keiko asked as she gingerly separated the lily from the wrapping and the baby's breath and examined the flower. Keiko unbound the lily and noticed that the stem seemed strong. The flower no longer needed the support of the wire, and

We All Look So Perfect As We All Fall Down

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My server wore cat's eye glasses, a Wonderbra that made her breasts like the embryos from Alien wanting to burst their way out of her Hooters t-shirt but couldn't.

HOMELESS OUTSIDE THE CHURCH

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Only the occasional kindness of a stranger,// The curve of his back, a slope rushing past me,// Is luminous, the coin pressed in my hand . . .//// And yes, I beg.//// I open my palm// As Jesus did.//

So Sweet

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    I met a girl so sweet, So sweet that she could Break your heart   No girl, no one should Be so sweet So sweet that she melts My depression   Increase my anxiety   No one should be so sweet   More like a little girl Than her 25 years   If…