Most recent stories

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…

At the Christmas Carol Bar

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I’ll take my Christmas carols neat-

Arcana Magi Pure - c.4

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The stone floor was cold and the sky above had a purple haze. The setting sun hid beyond the trees outside the crumbled walls. Vines reached over the well as if it grabbed it like hand.

I Saw God in a Wheelchair

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I saw God sobbing in a wheelchair His legs didn't work and He had no hair I saw God sobbing in a wheelchair Nobody else was there Nobody stopped to stare Nobody seemed to care

Windows

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The Kid, The Executive, The Doctor, and The Actress.

Self-Portrait of Someone Else (excerpt)

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Recently I think I became someone else. When the alarm clock rings in the morning, it sounds sharper than usual; getting up, my feet don't seem to quite touch the floor; looking into my bathroom mirror, my face seems to be melting, sliding, my eyes dri

The View From Jeremy's Butt

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“The usual,” he says, casting implicit scorn on Boston’s B–or is it C-list?–scene. “There’s a TV weatherman who’s trying to impress a hot babe at the bar with the ten-day extended forecast.”

The Grand Inn

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I saw blood. The walls of the bar were completely covered in red shag carpeting. Had I been thrown back in time to the Seventies? It felt as if I had entered Hell itself. No, this was not Hell. This was the Aryan-Brotherhood's version of the movie Shaft. I…

learning to unread

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what happens to literature's characters when their readers traverse the veil?

Still Life with a Bottle of Olives

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On the table the image is by Chardin but the puzzle is by someone else and that is what he has dumped out of the box.

The Explosions Sound Like Gunshots

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The explosions sound like gunshots. Antonio Gattorno, absorbed in his work, flinches. He curses as he smears the brush across the canvas. He’s been painting since mid-morning. It‘s a hot summer day. Tomorrow is the fourth of July.

Pirate

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When I got out I didn't buy a new suit of clothes, step into a bar, or bargain for an hour with a whore.

strannikov's High Definitions

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Human being: a fruit or vegetable with animal aspirations and a mineral destiny.

Daylight

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not to free ourselves// from suffering// but become the window// through which it sees//

Around Close

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You know moments like these. You know how your mother ruins them.

Cups for Saucers

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They were everywhere walking right above us or so it seemed, back and forth, back and forth with their lousy, crunching heels making hollow chewed up noises that took all the sweet sounds left on earth and had them march along…

We're Pieces of God & We've Found Each Other

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The gates going up and down like gigantic windshield wipers to let the existent boxcars pass. We went across these real bumpy railroad tracks into a town so small there wasn’t enough room for the car, so we got out and went ahe

The Officer Gets Breakfast

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The officer’s eggs and bacon rested on the asphalt amid shattered ceramic and boot heels.

The Deli Worker

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This is the story of my friend, Gil

Double Helix

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Violence and property

Reince Priebus

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Reince Priebus is the leader of the Ko-Dan Armada.

The Swans

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The struggling creature opened its beak and let out a shrill cry before both parents moved in and, using their webbed feet, forced its head back under the surface.

The Gift

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This was the anniversary of the chairs. He would celebrate tonight for the chairs, and the chairs would welcome him.

Tiger-eyed

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The tiger-eye beads around her neck would wink at me like a nervous uncle sharing a secret with a child. They roll on her sternum like marbles. At night, on her nightstand, they whisper my secret to the patchouli-scented room. How long have they known?

Magritte

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Arriving at the pier I see a sailboat in dead wind. "That is pathos," Magritte says, pointing to a barnacle.

Margaret’s Mermaid

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When she was eleven, Margaret still believed in mermaids. She would fasten the neon diving rings that her mother gave her to her ankles and swim around in the pool for hours. By the end of the afternoon, with chlorine-swollen skin she would wince as she…

The Snowman on the Moon

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'Tis a cruel season. I have nothing and no means to order anything. Nobody to shop for and nobody to buy things for me. But the catalogues keep coming. And these catalogues don't bring out the best in me. The catalogues switch on what I call my want switc