Most recent stories

The Poet Begs

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William Walsh Queen Anne's "Gentleman of the Horse," poet and friend of Alexander Pope thought Caelia proved cruel for not giving him the toy he begged. So he wrote in The Despairing Lover. William Walsh …

Roanne Smiled

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With some of these guys it was like propping a kid on a training-wheel bike, then steering the kid down the street til he figured out what to do next. Tricks would come into the bar. Roanne had a smile for all but the dregs…

Call Name Mary Magdalene

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His hands fumble over my curves like he’s petting his golden retriever. He wears in inexperience on his face like I wear my mascara.

Storyboard

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For a time he documented his facial expressions.

one for the runners

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it always takes too long to figure it out

Pharaoh ... Pharaoh

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I woke up on my back with my face in the sunlight and thought, I guess this must be heaven, it was so bright out. Except for the buzzing of the insects. They will always bring you back to earth.

The Fox in the Garden

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It was 1635. During the time of the Tokugawa, not too many years before the British were expelled from Nippon, Minister Miyoshi no Kyoyuki of Edo decided to indulge in a practice he had heard rumored of the British.

Time to Rest

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the mighty mountains sighed, and the wide seas heaved

When a Bastard Stares at the Sun

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The sun is going to slice your goddamn face open.

A Night In a String Of Long Nights

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Whatever innocence Michelle had brought to the game was long gone, even the part where she dreamed she was the star of a righteous, asskicking movie.

Zombie & Zombie, Attorneys at Law

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“Are there really, truly zombies in Haiti?” “Bien sur,” he said. He had even seen them: affectless men and women with a deathlike pallor, high nasal voices, and the characteristic drooping at the chin.

Sometimes Errands Take Longer Than You Might Think

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She dropped the bundle of faggots she had collected and spun around with her mouth open.

Pillow

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“I was just dreaming about you,” he said, sleepy-voiced. “What's for breakfast?”

Field Sobriety

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A San Francisco cab driver named Jake, a friend of a friend, was my date for the party. I didn't really like him, but I needed someone to bring. In the 70s free love was the norm, but it was hard to have sex with a guy I wasn't really attracted to. …

Incantation beyond Relief

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Double, double oil and trouble; 
 Spill and burn and caldron bubble. Back and forth make strong the stride. Even now pace the pride. Stepping stones that dot the slough make way for the clean up crew. I promise safe crossing. Straight…

eve

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she lays there wrapped in his baseball sheets

Very F'_able

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I know what you were thinking. I know what I was thinking. We both looked in each others’ eyes and thought: “Very fuckable.”

The August Heartbreak Suite of Sorrow's Poems

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My heart hurts as I miss you here./This was your intention, I know./ And nor is my reaction unique.

SONS OF ITALY

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I am a good liar

Where I work you cannot see the sun.

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Where I work people use words like leverage. They do not appear to denote anything.

Garden Goddess for Hire

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A five-star, world famous hotel nearby even had a new fence put around it recently, to keep out the riff-raff. That would include me. The hired help. A gardener.

Disparity

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These were strange realizations, and each built upon the one before until I was completely mystified and unsettled in my life.

Wolflet

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She wanted wolf cubs. Not kittens, not husky pups given as infant gifts with red bows around their scraggy necks. No, she wanted wolf cubs. Even when it grew to pace the length of her hallway - proud as men - she could not love it. …

Flash Wk 4: Cartography

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The surveyor began at the mouth of the Klamath and worked his way toward the mining camp. He'd expected to find a trail, but for most of the way he hacked through dense underbrush. The river shrubs clambered into the water, just skimming its surface. There were…

On the Beach

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I wear my Whittier College mascot-logo-inscribed ballcap: FEAR THE POETS. On Lovers Point I write haiku. A man and woman picnic —— he never off his cell phone. I approach and hand her my poem. They depart without exchanging a word… or a look. man and…

Your Pajamas

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Your pajamas torture us. When moist they uncomfortably cling. They have evil buttons, and they cause us to stumble on them in the dark.

When Leaves Fall

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And then she'd wipe her eyes, sweep her hair between the crest of her left ear and the side of her face and press that ear to the knot.

surrogate

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the vigilance that informs a parent's every hour had momentarily lapsed

Polo

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“You look strangely familiar,” he said, taking a drink and swinging his leg over the horse, landing on the ground beside me ...

Submission

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Periodically I try to vacuum up their eight-legged asses but they hide in the cable drop.