Stories tagged desert

Broken

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We sat under the broken umbrella, its flowered fabric hanging limp on one side. The rain fell softly at the edges of our backs. I kissed his hand, the one without fingers (not a casualty of his job, only of birth). My lips pressed what I couldn't say into his…

You're Talking in Your Sleep

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Each morning, she rode her bicycle up north to her job at the pawn shop, which sold hot radios, transmitters, procured from the bodies of dead grunts. Chao ban, Chao ban, I heard her say to the old village women as her bicycle became a black blur upon the

STARKVILLE

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My mom threw my suitcase out the front door. It split over and my black bra lay spider-like on the sidewalk for all the neighborhood to see. And they were there, Steve the Sleaze on his bike in his wife-beater tee shirt and filthy cargo pants. Nancy Thomp

Aguilas Range

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When I was thirteen and still lived in the desert I saw a ghost woman at the top of a dry waterfall in the foothills.

The Death of Childhood Heroes (or "Roadkill")

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We were pushing ninety down the highway through a stretch of what rightfully should have been called the Badlands. We were both absorbed and coping with the rapidly escalating stages of desperation and so neither of us noticed when the yellow figure stepped…

La Sombra

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The big-mouthed white woman came to the desert to study water. There are coyotes and rats and cactus and ocotillo. People and chickens and horses and cows. Lizards and bats. Scorpions and flies. Cats and dogs. There are four madrones in the plaza.

Desert Wine/Manhattan Sour

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rusted house off to the left a chrome revolver off to the right desert hallucinations city undulations

MOURNING FLOWERS

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The gardens of Babylonare empty again.Kings and queens came back to the ancient desertto rise their childrenin the wise wilderness.But you can still heartheir hidin' laughingrunning throughthe mourning flowers.

Skinburn

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I wrinkled my face up in the glare and warmth of the sun. I baked easy in the hovering heat and my spot-speckled skin ate up the rays and swallowed deeply.

Egypt.

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When the sky was thinner and water faster, we would chase the falling stars.

The Tombwatcher's Tale

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My name is Lu-chen Wyatt, and I have watched this tomb for seven years with undying loyalty. Tomorrow I am going away, and I wish to set down the story of my leaving and to say goodbye to Set-Yi, whose burial place has been my home for so long.

Banana Creme Pies for Sixty Percents

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Suddenly the auditory havoc dies down and she falls into a loop, saying BANANA CREME PIES FOR SIXTY PERCENTS over and over.

Fresh

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There wasn't a ring on her finger.

Cuntasaurus Rex

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Coyotes are such sweethearts.

The Exiled Realm

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destinies bring me to a damned desert