Most recent stories

Growing older, uncomfortably

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Cafés just aren´t cool anymore unless they boast walls of exposed brick, pipes, half a chair nailed to the ceiling, mis-matched furniture back-breakingly uncomfortable.

Noir in cadence

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...hup hup hup...

Excerpt: Reykjavik: A Novel

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2. Reykjavík - 1986 …

Mike's Confession in the Basement to Being Allergic to Balls

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He arched an eyebrow.  He was "thinking" — a tricky thing to do, when you never read, even the newspaper.

Moles & Scraps

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A starved hunchbacked figure covered in blanket gently steers a one eyed dog along with him. A four legged shadow serving as his longtime companion against the all-consuming vacuum of the universe. A friend for all times.A thin scar runs from his cheekbone to…

after

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when the mirror cracks my eyes won't cry it's a perfectly respectable (romance) between her and i

Bricks

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There are things we must not say.

Triolet

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the magic is our making

More from the Chronicles of His Demise

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Only scotch and cheap champagne/ retain their reliable flavors.

Puppet X, 2

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It’s important to sound Human, I know To get fragile Near your Mother I myself Get glimpses Now & then Once, Eating chicken, staring At the inside Of a muscle Once During a bad thunderstorm While running down the stairs

You, the Real Story

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I don't need to be toldhow natural you are, not here.I'm reminded every singletime I open my eyes.What I want to know iswhere have you gone? Whyhas it taken you so verylong to return? But Iknow the answer. You aresomewhere fighting for your dearlife. It's what we all do--in…

Svalbard

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there is a vault in the mountains / that in itself contains infinite vaults

astral ages

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Life in astral circles

philanthropy from a cardboard box + a detour to Han-shan

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philanthropy corrugated with a smirk / printed aside every cardboard box and room / every cardboard house with every cardboard door.

Goodnight, Travel Well

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An excerpt.

Animal Crush

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two pairs of arms and legs

The Little Things (three versions)

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It's the little things that trip us up: a small hole in a level field, an innocuous root in a well-trod path, a disinclined sidewalk...

Lost Splendors

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“I have a theory,” she said on their first date, which was at an Indian restaurant where the music was a lovely singsong but the chef seemed enraged as he clapped a ball of dough between his hands, then threw it into the flames. And her date, whom she…

Urgencies

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...it was moving toward me from an oblique angle somewhere behind, steadily, relentlessly.

What is Retirement?

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But what “is” retirement? All of the previous sections in a life are full of detailed descriptions. But “retirement” is somehow left rather vague. One would think that retirement would be the long-awaited GOAL of life. But instead we are left with the

The Day I Got Fired From My Foundation Job

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But of course, I didn’t get the grant, so my day job in communications at Katzenfeld continued. It was the first job I got out of college. I had been there for over a year and my salary was less than my rent and student loans combined, so I had to keep my

The Ghost

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I stroll out to the front lawn, and find myself against the sea of grass, painted daubs within the frame of a distilled rock. My ears attuned to the starlets warbling on the twisted branches of the lone tree, flock of wings that find subtlety and shine in the rapture…

Interruption

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As soon as he neared his neighborhood newsstand, handed over the exact change and had The New York Times in his hand, Irving switched from feeling he had no choices, to feeling he had a future.

In an authentic Irish pub in Las Vegas

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In an authentic Irish pub in Las Vegas where over much crowd noise the three of us are discussing Yeats, Joyce and Lady Gregory. We’re in an Irish pub after all, plus the fact we’re literature profs attending a Vegas academic conference.

Puppet X, 1

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I know you, ladies and gentlemen We see the near future through you Your factual face as you sit indoors Youthless In your ordinary chair "Mice run through their vision Mice run through

The Planet Will Erase Us

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We control/ nothing.

Waves of Memory

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"Sometimes things just don’t go as planned. It doesn’t mean anyone is to blame - It just is."

East

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We went east. It wasn't all that easy, but easier than staying where we were, unable to freely move or give birth to anything brand new. We went east insearch of the mysterious faraway beginnings of a mythical wild west. We went east becauseit…

My First Love Messages Me On Facebook

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He tells me that he thinks he reached out as he needed healing and I wonder if I should diagnose him on the spot, explain what years of therapy taught me about him. I don't. Instead I compliment a photograph of the pot plants he grows, organic,

Edward Ogle the Tenth

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shitting out the Mona Lisa.