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Chairs and Mirrors

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There's a mirror in front of me and I thought it was so I could see myself, but I didn't want to see me.

Unseenly

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Over the years, his face began to alter

Down Cellar

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Down cellar, my father showed me where he kept his beer stash. It was in a cubbyhole under the bulkhead, where Mom never thought to look.

When the Muse Abandons You

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I am abandoned to the mundane/ calculations of a small mind/ trapped by small considerations

Acid Flashback #2

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I'm transfixed in Tower Records,all the CD covers dancinglike a thousand little TV screens.Your whispers a remote controlchanging those flickering images.When security asks us to leave,you drive my car as I slumpagainst the window.I close my eyes and transport usStar…

Gabrielle in Arrears

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You should be calling 911

Wednesdays They Pay Us, But Now It's Thursday

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fire rolls through the drive-thru

A Quite Literary Catfight

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Cavett asked McCarthy what she thought was overrated about Hellman. McCarthy–never known to mince words–replied “Every word she writes is a lie, including ‘and’ and ‘the.'"

Regarding Viet Nam

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At some point, my lottery number/ was in the mid 300s. I was safe/ for whatever reason. No need/ to burn my draft card.

Disposable

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He was a liability. I knew I had to ditch him.

30 East Towards Texarkana

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44 miles out the gauntlet of Red River pines cast shadows pointing north.

Sugarfoot Pond

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i was jus countin' your heartbeats, Emmie and you know what? i think they's the same as mine!

Granny's Reform School Weekend Intensive Workshop, Session One

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Being a grandparent is most joyous when deliberately subversive.

Middle Age

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There are no city-chewed streets,/ only white and lilac blooming dogwood trees.

Interview

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The ethnographer turns on a recorder. The story began before but that is lost, like it never happened.

Litter Box

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When I died, she said, she was going to have me cremated and put my ashes in the cats’ litter box.

Dog Days

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I dreamt I was spinning down the coast in a convertible. It was warm, and the top was down.

Hot Lava Carpets

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"The carpet's hot lava," my son cries, pointing at the ground from the sofa."Yeowch!" I say, leaping next to him.We sit together for a moment, silently contemplating our predicament."We need to get downstairs," I tell him. He nods, but does not move. He stares at the hot…

The Pennsylvania Kaufmann House

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Falling Water almost fell./ 12 million dollars later// it will splay itself a little longer

Space Junk Sounds A Hell Of A Lot Sexier Than It Is

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"Tell me more about your volcano obsession," he said. I told him about Pompeii. About the city frozen in time. And about the casts of people frozen in stances of eternal abject horror by a disaster they had no chance of avoiding, a disaster

Three Mississippi Fictions

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When I was sixteen, my dad’s new wife and her daughter, Mary Ann, moved in, so I had to get out. I found a burned-out one story place on Corey Road near the gas plant. When it wasn’t raining, you could see right up through the roof to the stars.

Fat Man in a Blizzard

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There he was. Minnesota Fats, short and pudgy, jowly and blond-haired.

The Esso Roadhouse

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The night we crossed the Madres my father stuffed his Stetson full of cash.

You, the Correct Other, the One I am Looking For

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You, the correct Other, the one I am looking for, you have exacting standards concerning where things must go.

Things Left Unsaid

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I knew I was on the wrong bus, but jumping off was a death sentence. I was afraid, but by then I was used to that.

Haircut

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She is cutting his hair. The wind is in her curls. She rises and falls like a sleeping animal. He has removed his shirt. There is a towel around his neck, the smell of spice and banana, the scent of vacations. You are reminded of the time in the beach house in Florida…

Damn Sure Right

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The man had come up behind me and locked my arms backwards. I could feel his cock or gun against my low back. He told me if I moved he'd hurt me and he said did I know what that meant? I did know, however I was watching from…

Julie in 2004

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She'd have to be careful, but couldn't you just see it?

Black Sweater

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A small poem about incipient insanity

Help Me Rhonda

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Walking to class, Paula routinely fishes around in her purse to be sure the condom she thinks of as a close friend, even naming it Rhonda, is in there to help her avoid a pregnancy yet, even so, Paula admits that sometimes she daydreams in that boring economics class,…