126687
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52395
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The sinuous river of your childhood. Do you remember how it slid between your young legs before winding away, making its lively and bubbly sounds. You would have made it light-headed with your games and screams. When you lingered late in the afternoon after school, and you…
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165194
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I walk into the fruit and vegetable market and she sees me right away. I've been trying to avoid her and have been successful for more than three weeks. The break-up was not a good one. I still have a scar over my left eye where the glass ashtray hit me.
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1298175
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I'm old enough to be her father.
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580126
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The brown grackle chirps/
as she chomps a plump cricket-/
melodious meal.
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95677
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often visit me in my room, so quietly, so suddenly, buzzing my head with wonderful, possible sentences. Sometimes I find they've been there radiating all along, children ready to burst out in a sneaky fit of laughter if I move just slightly…
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116177
|
They say that inside the veins of every Bohemian
lies an entire army of dead alcoholics.
I suppose this is true of me too.
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115855
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"Your loss," she cackled, stumbled to the bed in the corner, hummed a tuneless song, and began snoring, too.
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11577
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The High Priest Psychiatrist at Orwellian Industries Medical Center where I used to work loved to hear himself say the following, to my horror, at every staff meeting: "We psychiatrists prescribe the poisons to the patients and the…
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111205
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123985
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For the next two hours, Ed goes nonchalantly about his business, buck naked the whole time. He putters around the house, writes e mails, waters plants, vacuums the rug and sweeps the porch. I pretend to ignore his nudity
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51486
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Because I was not sure if the poet had said yearn or urine, I zoomed in on her mouth as she commanded the lectern...
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144366
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But the best thing about Rebekah
was the way she floated always
beneath the scent of woodburn
and dusty Middle America,
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1293127
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The fish would need a name, but she didn’t know how to tell if it was a boy or a girl. Did fish have penises?
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1187126
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Defy the impulse to grow beyond/
your means and the means of the/
place where you lie at night.
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1516104
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"I sighed heavily. 'Goddamn it...' I spat under my breath. 'Every motherfucking time..."
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81277
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It's true. I like to walk on the ceiling. But please. Don't hold it against me. The ceiling is cold. Nobody lives there. Just a spider. A curious arachnid. She lets herself down sometimes. If I'm on the bed, trying to sleep, staring at the ceiling, watching her…
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120977
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A new philosophy stirs in its surgery.
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124086
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paper cuts, an old film unraveled
from its reel, risking exposure.
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1366159
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She called it phantom energy. She said it was costing us money every month. A few cents here and there, sure, but it all added up.
|
89996
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“Yes, Mother, of course I’m still single. No, I haven’t joined the Army. No, I’m not moving back home.”
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1419204
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In the hotel lobby, the gold light and warmth and flower arrangements were all lies, but they reminded us of spring. We imagined happiness. We checked in.
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127887
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I was at Mike's place when the call came. My brother sounded so accusing that I wanted to punch him in the face. But he was way upstate. "Dad died today," he said, as if I could have somehow known or prevented it. It was sudden. A heart attack. He was…
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951126
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1323146
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She drinks a chocolate martini. I fold myself up and slide into her pocket.
|
151177
|
Tsunamis are quiet at first:
not one big wave but many
small injustices, so chaotic
all the pressing all the weight
of the noise, like a stone
holding you under.
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112696
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A horizon shrinks a burden until it’s a seagull getting fat off vinegar fries. I’m in love with the way your mouth moves when you aren’t talking. When it fills with salt.
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108386
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I am falling, falling out of my body,
falling like midnight onto mice.
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195264
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The man looked at him for a moment, as if he didn’t understand him, “Mr. Wallace, you have a genuine miracle in your bathroom. This isn’t something that just wraps up.”
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95177
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I saw the shiny dime . . . .
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