1214 4 4 
      
			 
			
			
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1871 5 4 
      
			 
			
			
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				I would be reduced to begging on the streets and hoping for a sign of her in soup lines.  
					
				 
				
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1448 4 4 
      
			 
			
			
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				Momma takes us to the candle store next door where everything smells sweet 
as she opens, closes glass lids, lets us lean our faces close, smell pumpkin, lavender, 
trees... 
					
				 
				
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1547 6 4 
      
			 
			
			
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				What in the name of God’s green earth does this say? “Chifferobe if you can of Aztec in coffee can”?  
					
				 
				
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1240 7 4 
      
			 
			
			
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				I'm not sure if he's right or not but he has a gorgeous smile, he's charmingly self confident, and he's very persuasive. 
					
				 
				
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1799 4 2 
      
			 
			
			
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				Two by two they come walking 
down 7th Ave 
girl with girl 
boy and girl 
boy and boy 
two pigeons strolling 
side by side 
two robins 
two crows walking stiffly 
like two pieces of 
anthracite coal 
two spiders 
two dogs sniffing each oth 
					
				 
				
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1121 5 4 
      
			 
			
			
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				proper words fail to get proper points across . . . truthful words have no beauty,/beautiful words have no truth. 
					
				 
				
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1230 4 3 
      
			 
			
			
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				Today, the buxom neighbor carrying blintzes
Egged me not to care about
What’s not flat. She forgot
To bend, clanging together
Some fronts and sides. 
					
				 
				
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1904 12 3 
      
			 
			
			
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				....sees the beginning of a new day through the closed shutters, hears the guard washing up at the sink, feels the beginning of a cry in his throat. 
					
				 
				
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2418 8 3 
      
			 
			
			
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				After like forever I remembered Seth was there, too. He was still on the levee's edge, but had drawn his legs up and crossed them, Indian-style. All of a sudden he was laughing. 
					
				 
				
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993 4 4 
      
			 
			
			
			 | 
				
				It’s always daylight there 
My brother comes running down the sidewalk 
holding out his arms and calling my name 
He’s wearing suspenders. He’s gotten thinner 
in heaven 
He embraces me warmly 
wanting us to be friends 
I give up trying to resist 
 
					
				 
				
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1600 5 4 
      
			 
			
			
			 | 
				
				They perch on the curb in front of the factory, like so many rail thin crows exuding smoke from their haggard beaks.
They've been here.
They've been here a long while. 
					
				 
				
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1288 2 1 
      
			 
			
			
			 | 
				
				Did  Isaac see, his mirror in the fronds    Of  apple-orbs that let their ripeness stay    No  more than supplication of the wands    The  sweet tornados in one drizzle's wings betray?    The  tree that greets them is not ruled by iron bands    Whose  light's lines were… 
					
				 
				
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1203 5 4 
      
			 
			
			
			 | 
				
				On the beaches in the summer the fine hair rose up from under the material of your bikini and swirled around your deep navel, almost invisible to the naked eye, but not to the mind, which imagines everything funneling down into the center of your being, 
					
				 
				
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1201 4 4 
      
			 
			
			
			 | 
				
				The face is made of cracks that move with and from what it witnesses. When I let a thought out, your face cracks too, kind of dramatically. I didn't mean to share it, you press about it though. I think of everyone else who has cracked or cracked someone else and it doesn't… 
					
				 
				
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1615 6 4 
      
			 
			
			
			 | 
				
				He had stared at the back of his neck for so long that images of his nape flashed into view randomly throughout the day like interfering signals from a station just out of reach, DESIRE CHANNEL, or something, reminding him of his skewed priorities, his fa 
					
				 
				
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1232 6 3 
      
			 
			
			
			 | 
				
				Now I know 
All you need is coffee 
 
					
				 
				
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1375 5 3 
      
			 
			
			
			 | 
				
				The tax man he is coming 
But I got me no dough 
Been looking for some new job 
That’s going really slow 
I bought a lottery ticket 
But dropped it down the well 
I went to see the psychic 
She said I’d go to hell 
Can’t cope, I just can’t cope  
					
				 
				
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1280 5 4 
      
			 
			
			
			 | 
				
				The cellar smelled like an aroused muskrat. 
					
				 
				
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1108 4 4 
      
			 
			
			
			 | 
				
				      “Everyone you see is half asleep. And you're on your own, you're in the street.”    -John Lennon         What we can muster now is a few choice words of humor, but  unfortunately that won't show them anything that they haven't seen… 
					
				 
				
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1474 7 3 
      
			 
			
			
			 | 
				
				-for Franz, the least understood comedian of all  We all knew that Marissa's  college boyfriend was ugly — there was the way she answered our mother's  pestering "Is he cute?" with a stalling "Um, well..." and  then there was the fact that she hadn't posted any photos… 
					
				 
				
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1600 5 4 
      
			 
			
			
			 | 
				
				 Aubrey pulled close the wool cloak that used to belong to a pilgrim  and wondered if some of that saintliness and pardon might rub off.  The mail was late and the bushes damp, but at least years of living  in the woods had taught Aubrey to avoid thorns… 
					
				 
				
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1810 5 3 
      
			 
			
			
			 | 
				
				The summer everyone read Faulkner, I read Hemingway. Out of spite. 
					
				 
				
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1229 8 3 
      
			 
			
			
			 | 
				
				The particles of dust didn't want to be looked at 
					
				 
				
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1367 5 4 
      
			 
			
			
			 | 
				
				
				
			 | 
		
		
			
			
			
			
			
1129 4 4 
      
			 
			
			
			 | 
				
				The Managers are always to be found in twos or threes, lumbering greyly.——If you pass the Managers in a corridor it's a good idea to say hello. They will probably return your greeting, as best they can.——The Managers conduct meetings. They sit at the… 
					
				 
				
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1136 3 2 
      
			 
			
			
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1722 7 4 
      
			 
			
			
			 | 
				
				 My mother told me never to trust girls who speak from the   side of their mouths. But Kat, with her rainbow bracelets and flat vans, can't   speak any other way. A creature of A.D.D. and zip up leather, studded belt and   the next No Wave, has mistaken me for the last… 
					
				 
				
			 | 
		
		
			
			
			
			
			
1416 4 3 
      
			 
			
			
			 | 
				
				I'd never seen a dead person before, let alone one that was living just
seconds earlier. 
					
				 
				
			 | 
		
		
			
			
			
			
			
973 5 4 
      
			 
			
			
			 | 
				
				(Sung to the melody of "Ghostbusters")When your prose is weakMetaphors clichésWho you gonna callGhostwriters!Characters they speakNot much to sayWho you gonna callGhostwriters!I ain't ‘fraid of no rejectionI ain't ‘fraid of no rejectionLyin' in your bedImagination soarsWho… 
					
				 
				
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