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At the Crossroads Bar

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An eye patch waits aslant his passenger seat.

Because

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Because I'm old and this is the Way I Do Things now...

The Big LARP

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The ambient sound wheezes on.

Punchlines of a cosmic joke

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Creating a world in which no one believes . . . killing a world in which no one could believe.

Bowling With Diane Keaton

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Friday night, 80s halcyon,a memory of October bowling.The suburban lanes loudwith kids and kinetic releaseof balls slamming on maple.I have no footwork, no senseof release, fingers sweatyin the grips, resin droppingwith a hollow boomfollowed by derision from more adept…

A Regime With No King

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Blank space / governs the minds of small children

The Wind

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The wind comes up relentless in the afternoon

O Fortuna

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This poem begins my poetry collection. It is about the pain and suffering I experienced when I had an attack of two pulmonary embolisms, one in the right lung, one in the left. This nearly killed me. I lived with the pain in my lungs whenever I took a bre

buttons

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stepped away from meafter leaning on melike I was a wallmy face felt stiffyour fingers stoppedyour body was coldthrough my clothesI touched your buttons

use

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Brian Epstein's Letter to His Mother

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All that loves green produces green.

I Was in Hell, Carmella...

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You have to play the part and be somebody else at all cost, do this from the time you wake up drink your milk first contact, mom I wish I were someone else, tell me, tell me there must be a way through the center of the doughnut hole, direct opposite of a crucifiction.…

Sanctuary

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until the last wisps started their heartless descent admitted by default to this curious flock a sorority I never wanted to join the red poison drips relentless

June 29

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the only thing that impresses me now is the state of my inebriation

bird

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Ah now, behold this bird. This silly little bird. Holding in his claw his piece of bread. His feathers white, his yellow comb. So proud to show his comb, designed to catch the eye of that other he's so attentive to. Though she indifferent…

Ann Patchett Writes Her New Novel on the Treadmill

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I write my new poem in the gardenBut not like Mary OliverMore like meDirt under my fingernailsReal dirtI can feel the grit of it Something that shouldn't be thereBut is.

Residuals

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My heart raced. I couldn't swallow. Heat rose under my skin, sharp and disorienting. I wanted to disappear—to fold inward, to dissolve—but instead of leaving, I walked toward him.

Mrs. Penfield

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Now her right breast was annoying her.

The Circle of Life

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Maybe you could buy a Volunteer,” Carol suggested. Ma huffed. “You know we don't have the money for that. And besides I never liked the idea of Volunteers — taking advantage of the poor like that.”

So Green

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So greenThe road winded its way like a terrier tail but without wagging. Cream white snow and warty as country roads are with their noisy gravel which crackled under my schoolgirl shoes. I can still hear that noise when cars pass in front of my house, the tires…

Soldier's home

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That there are a downstairs, and high voices.

Interview with a Jesus Lizard

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Interviewer: So, you walk on water, right? How is that possible? Jesus Lizard: Well, I only run on water, and upright on my hind legs. Haha, if I tried just walking on water I’d sink quicker than St. Peter!

Black and White

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Chris and I have an understanding. We've been playing cops and robbers all morning, running around and stirring up shit.

to You

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A glance—I dissolved completely.

Bronwen, Painter of Miccasukee Street

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Walking in the just-thereness of afternoon, Scrubbed out by the Tallahassee sun, Past the same Shocking banana trees that have been The most dramatic occurrences all year Since her move from the north, She thinks we must stop…

Unintended Dispatch

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Other therapists had their own names for it: death by mishap, inadvertent fatal impact, unintended loss of life. These were all very polite ways of describing what happens when one person, mistakenly and without malice, kills another.

The Coming of Doctor Congo (Acts 1 & 2)

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1. The Doctor Sudan, 1936 The trap was sprung! The pair of would-be plunderers hung feet-over-head in a robust net of tightly woven rope, arms and legs entangled, alarm issuing like a Klaxon from…

Everything in My Head

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that I thought I knew was gone. Wanted me to bethe way I used to be, when I provided my own love light everywhere I went. Now thoughts sit with their arms crossed. It happens.Everything in my headis a path, or an illusion according…

THE COUNT

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count vb (late 14c) “to enumerate, assign numerals to successively and in order; repeat the numerals in order”; also “to reckon among, include,” from Old French conter “to count, add up,” also “tell a…

Blind-Sided, PT 1.

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BLIND-SIDED 1 The humid night air clung to Julio's skin as he and Marco stepped off the bus near campus, laughter trailing behind them like the smell of esquites from the street vendor across the road. The political rally had been noisy and full of energy - and…