• Three Piggs

    “I don’t care. You can’t stay,” Peter said as he handed his brother a hot cup of coffee. When Peter saw the news alert on his phone yesterday afternoon he knew either Percy or Pearl would be appearing at his front door with an outrageous story. His triplet siblings were always pieces of work. Thank

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  • The House of Asche

    Asche Manor rose before Geoffrey like a carbuncle. Brittle branches and towers of boxwoods shadowed his ancestral home. Geoffrey grimaced and looked away. They promised each other they would never come back. Miller pulled the car into the circular drive. Nothing had changed, Geoffrey thought. Nothing could. After university, Geoffrey had travelled from base-jumping in

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  • Not Empty House

    It was a vacant housefull of that good potato salad and Luther Vandrosssing alongs, tight roller sets, and easy laughtercautious windows watching over the neighbors it was an old housefirst built on the blockpainted brick and that tree the kids used to climbR&B in the kitchen, bikes in the driveway it was a nice housefirst

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  • Heckle Jeckle

    Heckles and Jeckles try to tear me downBlack winged jeers tell me not to be proudBut my verses are verdant, my flow, amazingShout out to the gifts with which I’m endowedI put in the work putting pen to paperTruths full grown in the rows I’ve ploughedI see now my haters were just jealousMy beams pierce

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  • Three Card Monte

    Tell us that you hear our concerns Tell us how much you care Tell us how important our voices are Thank us for coming to share The conversation will continue Say we have to table this motion  Regretfully for a year or two Tell us how much diversity matters Just not as much as vacations

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  • Kitchen

    shotgun flat with the kitchen in the backshoulders swaddled in the torn toweltight self-conscious coilshold still girlblack hot comb slipping through kinksin the kitchen red hot comb rest in blue flamesburnt hair smoke and Pink Lustre sizzlingcurl beads smoothed into silky tresseslook at this buckshotholding my ear as the comb pullsin the kitchen a tear

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  • The Word

    Together we hurl through this tunnel of beeches and careless mulberries green silence pressing you and me on all sides my fingers drumming the steering wheel what is the word for it trees that keep their dead leaves dry papery offerings to distract deer from eating their bark in the hungry winter I could rattle

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  • Like Elysian Fields

    Lavender, sweet and heavy, floated in the air. Not lavender from a field or a bar of drugstore soap, no the smell of one of those fancy candles. Sarah hadn’t known what to expect. The waiting area looked like a nice hotel lounge, of course it would. What had she expected a Halloween set with

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  • Oyster Perpetual

    “Still or bubbly,” the waitress said.Avery flashed her a generous smile. “Just a Perrier with lime. Carl pick your poison. The club has an Scotch selection or—“Carl growled. “Look, this isn’t a social call. I just need to see those financials!”Avery and the waitress looked affronted.With its panoramic views of lush golf courses and sumptuous

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  • It’s a Paradox

    “It’s a paradox, isn’t it?” Luz had been pretending to scratch her nose to cover a yawn. She had been up since five cleaning the house then getting the kids off to school and herself to work. They were down three social workers at the Intermediate Unit and she knew the minute she got home

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