| 1838  7  1   
 | As I lean over the chrome rail and look at the floor on the street level of the mall, I ask myself a question. If I was to fall, I wonder if it would be better to land and lie there with my eyes open or closed. Closed, I decide, would make me look like I was at peace, open… | 
		
		
			| 1414  4  3   
 | I'd never seen a dead person before, let alone one that was living just
seconds earlier. | 
		
		
			| 1540  4  0   
 | That Loving Feeling 
How do I love thee? 
I love the bulge 
of your breast 
along the inside 
of my upper arm 
when you lie on top 
kissing me 
I love 
feeling the movement 
of your nipple 
along the tender skin 
there 
It | 
		
		
			| 1540  9  1   
 | for  paul celan           take it like an  amulet a jewel like a tulip filling up the expanse of green the volatile view  from within your thin wrist you write into manuscript for the hand is a map  with but grasping still it is but a like two palms like a… | 
		
		
			| 1325  4  0   
 | He saw his mother standing over him, and he called out to her for help, but she only laughed and faded into the paper towel dispenser. | 
		
		
			| 2071  19  3   
 | "And you’ll forgive my sayin’, your Maggie’s in heat, and if ya want to keep her you’re gonna ‘ave to fight. To be sure after this they’ll leave ya alone.” | 
		
		
			| 1277  0  0   
 | Leaving another seemingly pointless day at the office. 4:55pm. Winding  through the office parking lot; turning right onto SE Convenience Blvd;  inevitably pulling up to a red stoplight at the Orlabor intersection.My  windshield is dirty. Speckled with thrown-up slush from… | 
		
		
			| 1837  8  0   
 | The trainers looked at her and smiled and they were still one creature with four legs and two heads. The old man’s left eye moved in sync with the younger one’s right eye.  | 
		
		
			| 1417  3  1   
 | The drapes are closed against the  sunlight, but Ginny can feel someone in the room.  She peers through barely open eyes so as not to let on she's  awake.  She adjusts her position in  a way she hopes mimics sleep, turns her head to the side.  A woman… | 
		
		
			| 1894  3  2   
 |  | 
		
		
			| 3236  19  13   
 | In China I remembered you only once:the restaurant's speciality, chosenfrom a braid of live varieties,spiraled to the floor while the waiterflayed it with a knife flickedfrom his wrist. The snake made your initialover and over the black tile.What pain? Love's all… | 
		
		
			| 3451  32  15   
 | He wanted to walk in, take off his scrubs, and not have to look at pictures of peaches. | 
		
		
			| 1606  2  2   
 |  | 
		
		
			| 1799  2  0   
 | A Vicious Deer 
The man came across the hall to talk to us. 
He was buying some paintings. 
He had a white deer on a leash. 
Fosca (our Malamute) said: “That's a vicious deer.” 
She kept putting her paw on its shoulder. 
I said: “You bet | 
		
		
			| 1188  3  1   
 | NO IDEAS FROM HERE     Tape     The knife that tore the envelope tore the apricot. What was it?     Water     The boxes ranked against the open room.     Watch     So it was cut the water bright the tub.     Say … | 
		
		
			| 2504  2  1   
 | It was twilight, and the sky was getting darker even as the lights of civilization were becoming more noticeable in the gloom. The daytime city, with its grit and dust and texture, was disappearing. Soon there would only be electric light and neon and the | 
		
		
			| 909  4  2   
 | A 3.8 magnatude earthquake ravages Chicago suburbs. | 
		
		
			| 2148  4  0   
 | The large black pedals on the red/Tricycle rotate, push along the cracked,/Weedy surface. | 
		
		
			| 1414  0  0   
 | “So, do you still think I'm hot? I mean, do you think men still find me attractive?” Jenny asks.  This is never a good question to answer, much less entertain. I know  this as surely as I know anything. Still, let's break it down. I am  married. Jenny is… | 
		
		
			| 1532  3  1   
 | The world—the natural world—was terrible and beautiful in  wartime.     The leaves shuddered off trees.     The pockmarked fields.     The fallen brick chimneys. The way the birds heaved together in enormous flocks like  rescue missions and then just as… | 
		
		
			| 1377  9  4   
 |    Because you alone must know  how to make a smile shine at me  and be like the sun, I can only  feel its warm and coolish colors becoming   that perfectly deepened yellow then on to the red if you please that makes a shy kind of blue out of day. That… | 
		
		
			| 2578  2  1   
 | [Her adviser] looked at her and tilted his head, smiling. Over his shoulder she saw the M104 bus cruising up Broadway, and considered diving under it. Instead she took off toward the corner, in shame, and he followed. When they parted ways, he took her ha | 
		
		
			| 1598  6  2   
 | If you've ever cleaned house because a death is coming,you know it's the same as any other kind of cleaning.Wipe the tables.Pick up the floor.Sweep the crumbs under the carpet.For later.And for the ants.It's different, too.Because you're floating.On caffeine.On muffled… | 
		
		
			| 1141  0  0   
 | Her eyes creaked open in the misty morning sun seeping through my dusty  window. From her facial expression, I could tell she thought I was  watching her sleep, but really I had just woken up and coincidentally  looked over at the exact moment she did. I decided against … | 
		
		
			| 994  0  0   
 | “Our legs are touching.  Our legs.  Touching.  The light from the  screen illuminates your eyes.  Off and on.  Even in night scenes.   Maybe it dances in the eyes of other people there too.  But I doubt  it.  Not like… | 
		
		
			| 1779  2  1   
 | The Bike Messenger on Lexington Avenue 
Comes to rest 
taking a moment 
in the falling rain 
slowly massaging the 
veins at the top 
of his bald head 
Cracking his neck 
while the yellow cabs start 
honking behind him 
Unwilling to mov | 
		
		
			| 1847  2  0   
 | How curious that the thought arrived first in Portuguese; perhaps, after so many years, he was finally becoming Brazilian. | 
		
		
			| 1733  3  1   
 | "Not a fan?" Beth asks, feeling a sliver of happiness move through her. He furrows his brow. "Then what brings you here?"
"I'm here to pick up girls," Steve says simply. "Want to hit the buffet table? Want to run away to Mexico?" | 
		
		
			| 1410  6  4   
 | OF ALL 2,000 YEARS      10 Point     The city after the snow was Medieval, the thousand paths wound as browsing deer. Inside her coat what wild heart.        Lethe     The beads were rolled-river at her throat, milk blue on a yellow string. I… | 
		
		
			| 3767  25  13   
 |      Her addiction  started with dry roasted nuts, and quickly jumped to peanuts. At her worst, she  was consuming a large glass jar of peanuts daily. She loved while hating their  salty taste and greasy feel, the repetition of tossing them into her mouth.   … |