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23rd Psaltery

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The Lorelei is my sherris ; Ibibio shall not want. Head count maketh me to lie down in green patchwork: Head count leadeth me beside the still watercress. Head count restoreth my sounding: Head count leadeth me in the pathway of Rig Veda for his Namen…

Query

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time timed times time

Suspended

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In the beginning the revolution was all motion and energy. When the President for Life resigned motion and energy disappeared with the sounds of clapping hands.

Stories in the Dirt

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I walk back home, alone and without the bus fare. Distancing myself from the shadows that float interminably against the drowsy sun. Where frightened boys often roam, going in circles against the long lines of epitaphs and gravestones. Puzzling…

Hand-Me-Downs

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...

55 words #3

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...filled with the wildness, the inner sensibility of brilliance.

Sisyphus takes the day off

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what-ta-hell, fuck this/he snorts brushing/ the dust from his shoulders

A Whole

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You sawed off my wings then Asked

anura

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still to early to dodge leaping bodies on misty roads at night

Girlfriends

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—That was harsh, said Jen as the bathroom door slammed behind Melanie. —Mel's my best friend, not yours. She needed to know that shade of blue doesn't go with olive skin. —Viv, you said she looked like a whore. —That's how our friendship…

Swiss Sushi vs. Swish Suzi

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There being so few venues for Lapp dancing in Lausanne in those days, Swish Suzi took a job in a Swiss sushi bar.

Life Story

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A man lives with a woman he loves enough to live with, but not enough to marry and not enough for kids. He knows he could love others enough to marry, enough for kids, but he's not the kind of man to find those women when he's with this woman.Sometimes “love”…

He Ages

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'love is when the body goes away.'

Angel's Return

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I never looked at her face.

Cheese

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When exactly does cheese go bad? it simply does not, I say.

The Color

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The artist glides through an art supply store looking for a color within. She can feel the color, but she can't name it. She can almost see it, but it's not that kind of color. It's not like, say, blue or red, a primary color that animates flags or exotic ceremonies.…

Because words are insufficient

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The day you came to the wedding the sky was so, so brightly July./ I saw my face where I left it the last time . . . .

Laughingly rejected by The New Yorker

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...and we laughed.

Polaris

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Things get lost in Big John, too. I see the other guys throw jokes about his size at his body that wedge their way into his armpits or into the wrinkles of his laugh lines and disappear. I’m not sure if it all disappears to remind us how small we are,

Transgressions

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Once you descend, the third rail/ hums its invitation

Letter

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I'm writing you this letter played on a cherry flute. I'm sending it along through the poem's cloud of incense. The only delivery system I still hitch up for long distance pitching. I'm writing you a letter you'll probably never read. Never…

Behind the Ear

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She grew tired of waiting for her husband to give her a flower so she picked one for herself.

I

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I thought of you todayand what you put me throughthe time you saidwe couldn't rest.

Stroke

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She doesn't regret that they hadn't spoken. What did they have to say to each other, anyway?

Celebrating Difference

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Because they boil bananas and I fry them.

Glory

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A woman’s hair is her crowning glory, my grandmother always said.

Hand Grenades, or The Child in Your Eyes is Exploding the Known Universe

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There is a war, but is it not In my heart? There is a war, but You are not the reason. There is a War, but we're all doing what we can. There is a war, but it is not just Your fight. There is a war, but I Wished you still walked…

Barbarian(s) Within the Gates

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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 . . .

What She Left Unsaid

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Megan beat up on herself later over the unsaid.

Close those lips

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Ma tells me not to put a tampon between my legs. For fear of cotton fornication.