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They're cutting the catalpa tree (Catalpa speciosa) in Essen, Germany

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They cut the tall specious tree storms snapped the night in two or three. At times they pause most piously to count each ring of truth, drive nails into the stiff cathartic spine, divine if this unseasoned cigar topiary agrees with its own everlasting te

Bobby Fischer in Budapest

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Bobby Fischer hates anyone using his name. Movies, books, stories, news articles, games. Kasparov, Spassky, even Deep Blue—he cursed them for ever having thought of his name. Whoever's thinking my name right now—burn in hell!

Calm Face

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I went for a walk to buy coffee, here's what I saw

Tea with Mrs. Doyle

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I looked at it awhile waiting for it to cool. She said, "Ahh, go on! - Go on, go on.”

Chinese Noodle Soup

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Is: soozly, soggly, 'shrooms and shrimp, chickens and eggs-dropped, skinny brown smooths,snappyish peas and humblestumblingin hothappy broth.
 
 These flinging…

Freckles

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My eyes became purple, and boys called them "picture windows". Well, not boys, exactly, but one girl did. Junie.

The Secret Life

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When we were very young, we didn't tell because we didn't know any better. Now we are six, and we don't tell because no one has believed us since we told the story about the vampire upstairs. Now we're twelve, and we don't tell because our family's weird enough, living…

Under Perfect Conditions...

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If when he pulled his lips from mine he didn’t say a word, and if he didn’t try to explain or try to win me with bullshit...

Fragment from an Untelevised Revolution

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My wife has gone in Laos to translate foreign tongues, and I await the day when I too may leave.

too pissy for poetry

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feeling obligated to write/ is like feeling/ obligated to fuck.

When He Left it all to Me

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Where did you go?

Madness

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I read my book of names. Over and over again. Our name appeared in the newspaper 254,991 times between 1896 and 1944.

Withdrawal

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Are you interested in a new account?

Alice

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Alice writes three different versions of the letter. The last one is the most tempered, the most like her, but still it is such an unlike-her thing to do. The couple who lives above her has been disrupting her sleep nearly every night for the past three weeks. The woman's…

My Rat

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Today I'll make the call

Cows

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When you live in New Orleans, the only time you ever get to see cows is at the Winn-Dixie 24 Hour Super Store, in the back between the dairy and the seafood.

Johnny Mercer's Pier

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I’m a black and white figure--out of place in a Saturday morning cartoon.

Don't Rub Me Out Now

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Don’t rub me out now, not tonight. Or if you do, do it right.

Reckless/ Abandon

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He shows a wreaking disregard for the safety of others

OCD Man: a love story

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The mouth is peculiar and so are the shoes.

Monet Clouds

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the slow stretches across the horizon

Dreaming in Mink

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Kept in my mother's desk for years, the envelope yellowed. The glossy model went white in the creases.

Breaking Curfew (and Other Short Stories)

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Money’s tight

Pink

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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…

Knot Eye

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The diagnosis was peculiar, the doctors agreed, / but so was the condition

One-Way Ticket

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Margaret and I are going to Chicago. Everything we do this morning feels final, as if we are doing it for the last time, which is probably true.

Mice and Men

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Some life in Rosco's walls. He listened with his dead wife Sonya's stethoscope: rustles and scratching, a collective heartbeat.“Vermin”, said Vlad, Rosco's neighbor. “Will take over if no kill.” He smiled with one tooth, urped some vodka. “I…

SONS OF ITALY

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I am a good liar

DICKEY DEW

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One of my father’s friends never had a name so everyone called him Dickey Dew because he said that’s what everyone called him after he got his balls shot off in Vietnam. I used to sit on his lap while they played five card draw and he would pretend no

Them

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If I had been a cat you probably would have kept me forever, even with an incurable disease. I think about that every time I clean the litter pan, especially late at night.