Category: articles
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Spread
“Thanks.” Lifting her hand from the smooth countertop to take the latte from the girl with a bat tattooed on her neck and faded pink hair left a quickly disappearing imprint of heat and sweat.She turned, fishing for her keys in her purse, as they clattered to the floor, her headache blossomed into boisterous laughter…
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After the Postponement: Speaking for the Graduating Class of 2020
Mortarboard, indeed! Apt considering only one metaphor works for 2020 grads: We have scaled the WALL and seen the future. The Leader’s WALL got built in 2020 through the mother of all GoFundMe campaigns after Covid-19 scared America witless. Marx erred: Capitalists wouldn’t sell rope to hang themselves. They’d sell mortar to build security. When…
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Lydia
She pried open the shells all day.Or cracked them with a hammerextracting the purple veinalong the hinge of the shell.They were hard to open.She broke the handle on her little knife.She left the worm inside to dieor gave it to the poor to eat.Then wiped the white-washed walland left a purple hand. Featured Download: If…
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Invisible Woman Eats Attention Span of City Dwellers
I was born an invisible woman in a life so long ago that I’ve forgotten everything but four things: that underwear matters, that it is impossible to crack egg shells in even lines, that you should never brush your teeth at 5am, and that soggy tortillas soaked in chicken broth taste epic. I live in…
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Economics of the Heart
You had to die for me to knowthe layers wormed within your bones—childrenare born narcissists, open mouthsand puckered fists. We commandwith animal mewls, gifted drippingnipples appear like offerings, a sacrificethat wrings you clean empty. For yearsI sliced away (a martyrmust have scars). I want,I want, I want and still … you with nothing left, I…
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Playboy
NINETEEN sixty eight, April edition. Bachelor taxpayers screwed over by the existing system. The praise of cotton for the commodity it truly is. Deconstruction of linguistic skills of American flight attendants. Possibility of alien life in the cosmic system. Catalogue of impressive automobiles of the 60s. Ulysses! Joyce, a man of schizoidal tendencies. Playboy is…
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The Mirror
The mirror does not show everything there is to see. Look beyond the reflection, over the horizon, across the sea. Down in the valley, beyond the trees, to where your spirit soars free. Look beyond the pain; beyond the agony. Beyond the lines of time etched by memories. …
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A Scratched Head and A Scraggly Beard
Kevin was confused. On rising, he went into the bathroom and looked at a scraggly beard in the mirror. It wasn’t there when he went to bed and he knew he wasn’t Rip Van Winkle since he wasn’t hungry. He stared into his eyes; they stared back. He began thinking about numbers, lots and lots…
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Beauty In Pain
We make plans and then due to our own ignorance, we expect them to work. Life doesn’t care about your plans. It doesn’t care if you have big dreams. It’s still gonna hit you right in the face. And when that happens, most people suffer amnesia, that is, they forget the beauty of their own…
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Jake
“I can’t get thru to Jake!” Dr. Sam, our Special Needs teacher, was uncharacteristically frustrated. Jake was a beautiful autistic boy who was currently having a melt down. “I’ve tried radio, singing, the xylophone. He either doesn’t respond or ramps up. I know music therapy can help him communicate. Can you take him into the…
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A Preliminary for the Identification and Classification of
Tyrian purple [ancient Greek πορφύρα, Latin porphúra] from a species of predatory sea snails in the family Muricidae, originally known as Murex. In ancient times, extracting this dye involved tens of thousands of snails and substantial labor. The main chemical is 6,6’ –dibromoindigo. One of Paul’s first converts in Asia— a certain woman named Lydia,…
