3 0 0 
      
			 
			
			
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				     The sky cannot fall in Ireland.    It threatens constantly,    a wagging finger    pointing at the fog rising,    an upside down heather cake    with a peat and bog center.    The sky in Ireland is held up     by stories and the rhythmic     sound of sean-nos,… 
					
				 
				
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499 21 17 
      
			 
			
			
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				They sang and clapped and stomped shod feet on hardwood floor, the smell of man sweat and bomb-making thick as perfume. 
					
				 
				
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138 7 7 
      
			 
			
			
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				Before I  go to sleep at night I make sure to tag my big toe in case I pass away before  daybreak and the undertakers come for my corpse. The cardboard is attached with  a loop of baling twine, and if I had more courage I'd staple the tag… 
					
				 
				
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1209 1 1 
      
			 
			
			
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				She sat down in the big soft chair in front of his desk.  “In your religion you believe in past lives, right?”
“Yes, reincarnation is a tenet of the Hindu faith.”  He replied.
 
“As Catholics, I think we believe that only Jesus had the power to come  
					
				 
				
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172 20 17 
      
			 
			
			
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				After a quick lunch of baby carrots and iceberg lettuce I sipped down the road to the liquor store and stocked up on a dozen bottles of Old Rasputin and a copy of the "Irish Times."  
					
				 
				
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115 6 8 
      
			 
			
			
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				In the night the rain made gentle, the flood still far off, and downstairs on the dining-room table the centerpiece collected dust as the hours passed.  
					
				 
				
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141 10 8 
      
			 
			
			
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				She sat adjacent to the bottle of Rioja, half-consumed, and as the week passed the dust settled on her like the faintest covering of snow. 
					
				 
				
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84 7 7 
      
			 
			
			
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				Red-bricked houses and four boys running rampant, singing, “armored cars and tanks and guns.” 
					
				 
				
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192 17 16 
      
			 
			
			
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				There was a moment when I expected you to murder me in my sleep.  
					
				 
				
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140 14 13 
      
			 
			
			
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				In my pocket, my fingers rubbed lint and thread together, a complete absence of coin. 
					
				 
				
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86 6 6 
      
			 
			
			
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				Post the absolutism, the fall.An upside down apple is a fragileImage and Nation together createN-trop(-e) chér my dear.Gallivanting about the frosted country-SIDE of lamb with mint sauce for afters.Ministrations to the dead.The body empty-D of all blud, dryin the cold… 
					
				 
				
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150 20 11 
      
			 
			
			
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				Running the gauntlet to the toilet in the dark meant finding a way past the loose boards and the possibility of being caught and dragged under like a drowning victim. No lifeguard stood sentinel on the landing, only the bitter light of the single bulb—40w 
					
				 
				
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67 0 0 
      
			 
			
			
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				O’Riain was an old-school teacher, trained by savages, who drummed learning into the skulls of Ireland’s youth. 
					
				 
				
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87 12 7 
      
			 
			
			
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				After the box was in the ground, we dumped the soil on top and patted it down tightly in case the bird came back to life and haunted us.  
					
				 
				
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125 9 4 
      
			 
			
			
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				Hope, like a hangover, coiled and crawled from the bed. A pillow. Make-up streaked painter’s palette and the refracted light from the pond a half-mile away, some scurred and big-puffed clouds sadly tolling by.  
					
				 
				
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