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A Change in Plan

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Times were tough back then. Just a few jobs. This was in the late thirties. It's the story of how Albert hooked up with Iris. Their unlikely meeting took place when they met out on the Highway 61 right-of-way just outside of Natchez, Mississippi, each trying to hitch…

Marriage

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A cult is one thing; it defies common sense that a commonly educated person cannot escape cultist thinking and belonging. That cult, A.A., is girded by police, fire, therapy, hospitals, insurance companies, and courts.

The Home

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They take her cookies they take her Coke they take her Kleenex the whole box not the used ones They take, they steal everything They’d take the brain out of an ox if they could Diamonds they steal bars of soap as long as they

Using Mini-Golf as a Metaphor for the Shortcomings in My Love Life

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My girlfriend, Anna, was not at the party but out of town for the weekend. I promised myself I would kick her out of my apartment soon. That was in the works since God knows when. She was never going to leave voluntarily and this maneuver, I figured, woul

The Young Woman Swimming

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She stepped inlike ice alonecould save hershe dived,slicing the wavewith her body her fresh pony tailsubmergedlike a silk scarfthen swam moving thewater awaylike whirlpoolscould hold her buoyantly save her from the headachewhispering wordsThey had been there all…

The Ardennes: Two Vignettes

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In the Ardennes for the the first time...

From The Chronicles of His Demise

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I am not the wind./ I am a stone eroded by the wind

The Rising Tide

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I'm just a rental dog myself looking for the guardian of starlight peeing on the expired parking meters and barking up all the wrong trees.

Talk.

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My eyes filled with tears when it entered my throat

The Cosmos as Gerunds

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There is no there or where but rather/ trajectories of probability

When the Witness Calls

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Here they come, those witnesses.

Cry Wolf

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"You are wolves circling, eyes burning in the dark...."

Eve's Curse in Silence and Sorrow

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To touch our skin was filthy, to spread our legs a mortal sin. You closed the keyholes to keep us apart, so we used them to keep you out and keep our secrets to ourselves.

The Escapists

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I sought to feel something. I hunted my mortality. I craved that rush of life pulsating through my veins.

Earth's the Right Place for Love

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When he turns around she has her top off and is climbing out of her skirt. "I don't like old men that much," she says. "We don't have to talk. No one will know."

Statistics (or: Walking to Work through Lexington Market)

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I avert my gaze to the crab grass pushing through broken concrete, the spent condoms, the empty vodka nips rolling at her stockinged feet...

Found - Guano

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Snail ooze and bull semen

Hubbled

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The nearsighted world/ puts on its lenses

Heart

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Usually I’m the only guy in a roomful of women. Some of them are foxy, too.

A Thousand Books

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I gave away 1000 books.

Sadie Hawkins Day

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It’s Leap Year and my school is observing Sadie Hawkins Day, which means the sixth-graders have a dance where the girls ask the boys to dance and the rest of us get to dress up like hillbillies.

Slight of Hand

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Our ironies don’t make us happy

Gaza Suite

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Tender bodies sizzle on the grill.

I Remember Kitty D.

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When the car arrived, Kitty bounded out, lipstick-stained cigarette dangling, silver hair tightly teased. We could not escape her hug, smelling of peppermint and Aqua-Net and Jean Nate.

Traces in the Winter Sky

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Exhaling slowly and deeply, Tyler settled his back in against the saddle of the tree's broad trunk and let it all go.

How I learned what to pray for

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“Mommy,” the voice was thin as a fledgling's. “I'm here, baby,” I said. An arm rose from the pavement and small fingers wound themselves into my…

small pleasures

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sheets, white, coarse redolent with Clorox

Irish Salad

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Overnight, I felt drunk, as if headed for hangover, but I hadn't drunk enough to cause it. What caused it? Superstitions dialed in sleep.

Window

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Can you write a 250-word story without using the letter "e"? Ruth's back is curving forwards, folding, softly caving into tomorrow.

Autumn

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The leaves are telegrams sent from the branches to the wind, saying, “it's over stop don't send kisses stop forget me.”