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Rags to Riches to Rags: Prologue

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My grandfather rode with the Czar’s army. He was abducted from a village in Austria, trained to pillage and drink, plunder and rape, and ride the best horses that could be had. They were given the best vodka and the sharpest swords. They were all just boy

we're already at the movies

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israeli flares light gaza/ casting incandescent nudity/ upon jumbled puzzle piece buildings.

Hunger

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for E. …

Ghostriders and rainbows

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Ghostriders in the syand rainbows in my mindor was itrainbow in the skyghostriders in my mind?I can't remember ...And apparently this body is not 200 characters long, so I add some text so this pearl too can be read (ahum) My body is only 170 characters long, snif,…

In the Parking Lot

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Maybe they considered themselves beyond redemption, or maybe they couldn't sit for that long.

Cantina

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It's good enough. Spacious. Then the cards but I am not for cards. Sasha directs the people, helping them, at ease and happy even. Strangers that have found a common denominator in games. A brotherhood and sisterhood I can't understand. I watch. I see green…

5000 years

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"She had been warned." (this started as a fun alien story and then took a human turn.)

Ditto

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He looked straight at her, not to challenge her, but to better gauge what it was she would throw at him. Her eyes always darted to the thing right before her red, swollen fingers snatched at it, like a thing possessed.

Struggle for Life

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7.53Another morning ritual. Trying to fill the loose ends of time in the early morning is a task.7.54I've done about everything, too early to work and too late to go back to sleep. 7.55Trying to avoid the nausea of life at all cost. My mind is a snakepit, filled with…

Our Costume Is a Kiss

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I'm waiting in line for the only bathroom in this bar while my mother is dying somewhere. I don't know where. I have to piss really bad. An obese Cinderella is in front of me and a zombie with ample…

Attempting Integration, Duchamp Descends to the Killing Floor

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Slice the moment into/ free body diagrams/ of elegant simplicity

Meaningless conversations

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“I wanted coffee, not art. That’s why I came here, and the coffee here isn’t even that good. We should have gone to the place across town, their lattes are the best.” “How do you determine the best coffee? Do you think they have judges that go from sto

Margaret’s Mermaid

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When she was eleven, Margaret still believed in mermaids. She would fasten the neon diving rings that her mother gave her to her ankles and swim around in the pool for hours. By the end of the afternoon, with chlorine-swollen skin she would wince as she…

BUTTERFLY, A NOVEL’s monologue:

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Many of you may think I can't talk but I do, excessively so and all jaws. I wonder if that's the reason I get burnt sometimes. And yes, I too have a life, hear me.I was born on a rainy day somewhere in Asia, when a stranger bought me on the antique Bird & Flower Market…

Letter Home

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The pen point sits motionless on the paper...

Quiet City

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I hope you'll have the time to read this before your attention wanders.

Zin Is Not a True Vegetarian

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She wakes up lip-syncing the remnants of a dream: the throb of cherry blossoms, the whine of lotus flowers.

A smile is worth 1000 teeth

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I was desperate for a social life but I couldn’t go out because I was too embarrassed to smile.

Denmark (or On the Death of John Updike)

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The impression old Updike left on a young mind.

Antediluvian

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He hid gallons in the garage,Fifths in the basement,Pints in toilet tanks,Airline bottles were on his person at all times.But he wasn't drinking.Why would he?He'd bought the cure at an expensive CenterThat taught him YogaAnd acupunctured away his brokenness.The cure worked,…

Moon Talk

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moonbeams unrecognized language steadies my course

Confession

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As a boy Edward had stayed in the confessional several times in a row. The priest was drunk and couldn't tell it was the same kid over and over. The tiny door slid open…”Scobbity bobbity…tell me your sins…” Edward confessed what he thought were sins, then said…

Yard Man

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It seemed there should be more tongue, so I started more, getting closer, and disguising my interest as being personable and caring about the yard triangle.

Poem for Amy Winehouse

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Last night I spoke to the universeon your behalf. I don't know if anyone understood my plea, but I did it, I knew what I meant to say out loud, heard myself implore the great cosmic stuffing we're all fluffed out of to pleasejust give you a…

Trail, Pool, Snake

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Early on, I looked for work; I walked the want-ad trail. Shuttle-driver, apartment leasing expert, laundry technician, account executive, PHP developer, dog sitter, sleep study subject – I would do anything that seemed steady.

palisades

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Driving up to the Palisades after 9/11 for a meteor shower

Impetuous Daffodils

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...the daffodils will fling/ their yellow petals, taunting winter

blink

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far from this time

The Jumpers' Pool

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The way that worked was you gave the bartender a buck, and he would write your name on a square on a calendar that was behind the bar. If somebody jumped off the bridge that day, you won the pot.

Pot or Marijuana

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Every six weeks or so, he and I would argue. I would argue. He would listen. He raised me twenty-five cents each time. I suppose that is a bad habit for me to have gotten into—to get pissed about rates and to fight to get a raise.