896118
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My father owned a penny arcade. I worked for him every summer all during my youth. My job was to hand green tickets to customers who achieved a certain score on Skee-Ball or shuffleboard. The coupons could be redeemed for merchandise which we had on display on…
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1153128
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I pointed, trying to keep a rising frisson of alarm from my voice.
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70385
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Yes sir, I confess there have been timeswhen I did not care how young the earth isor take pride in how she sprang back to greenregardless of how hard the snow fought.There have been times, yes, when I lacked the willto notice such things and knew that belowthe water's…
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104976
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The faces of the sun remain unaltered across the
seven day forecast.
I am sweat-glued to a poem, looking up at the
wall-mounted TV in a diner in the Valley
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109565
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This writers' conference (sponsored by VQR, which had run its banner ad atop the Fictionaut home page in the summer of 2014, which begins to explain both my attendance and this essay) revealed itself as an apt subject . . .
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921119
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Shiva and Zeus convene a focus group.
“It wouldn’t work,” the panel votes. “Those leaf eaters would strip the trees and crops if we let them come back every year.”
“That’s true,” Jehovah reasons. “Remember that plague of locusts I sent down?”
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85933
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We are both 53 and this is the first time I’ve gotten past a third date with anyone from Match. Seth is different. I’m not sure why. My therapist said, “Well, maybe you’ll be good for each other. You both have to accept that you are recovering, or in reco
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86697
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We’re heading to a
Poetry reading when my wife
Says “You owe me one”
Coming back from the
Poetry reading, my wife says
“You owe me, big time”
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10622111
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I am not the wind./
I am a stone eroded by the wind
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1124209
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feeling empty as the
bottom of a bottle
dry as a bone
in death valley alone
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10481511
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900104
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91487
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Lord knows we all tried to stop him from doing it. You're crazy we said. This makes you look like a lunatic. They'll hunt you down in even heavier droves now. You've upset their delicate memories. I tried to stop him. That's cow territory my friend…
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9991613
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The body is an endless safari
filled with rhino sightings
and encounters with antelope.
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773118
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866148
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...she shouted, “Benny!” and slowed down as a hand-lettered signboard proclaiming zukeeny appals cidar came into view
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98566
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Devoid of flesh and muscle,
Composed of bone and air.
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110687
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graves left or graves lost, into silence death sinks:/it's leaving the living that leaves us such pain.
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58233
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My mouth is orange rind and whiskey, my tongue a cocktail cherry.
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953159
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heart-shaped stones
love, devotion
no way
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840115
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74321
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We were fleeing Hurricane Katrina
We stopped somewhere in Texas at a roadside diner
But found a sign that said it was closed
All of a sudden as we sat there in our car
The shop’s owner knocked on the window
And asked what he could get for us
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974148
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Even music relies on what/
you know as music/
for its power to enthrall.
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79565
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If you want to be a writer, just write stuff.
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57321
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In the evening when the sun sinks low and the baths gets drawna tall glass of milk sits slowly spoiling and sweating on the cracked white window sill. And the kids walk across the grass.The birds send out their last farewell notes They sail on the infinite breath of…
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67922
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“Oh, where are you going to, O tow-haired rover?” Though my sight turns nowhere homeward, and my mouth's run numb, I can hear a leaflet sifting through the walls of clover; Though I stay, I ‘m going forth and o'er to Camelot, come- On a four…
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83685
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“Don’t ever call me that name, formal or informal, okay? Forget you heard it.”
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76121
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Even at five years old, I could tell that Eloise was haunted by ghosts that shook her core, leaving her dangling and seeking stability in slowly repeating her compulsive routines.
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21733
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I wonder if he talks about Hockney to othersor if he just does that with me?And what if I wanted to just brush black circular motions like a long playing vinyl record onto a canvas as I listen to Happiness Is A Warm Gun? And what of it?Do you think…
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67544
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A short sonnet for my sweetheart's birthday.
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