Soul Fountain

At a Party I spoke with two people at the party Saturday. A young police officer, short-haired, fit, chiseled face who had two young children. He felt constrained by the law, without discretion to question mopes (perps) aggressively or to ...
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The Stop & Shop Strike The Stop & Shop strike v. Game of Thrones. In Game what’s not made plain is the condition of the people compared with warriors and queens. There is no mention of land-clearance, tree-felling, pruning, chopping, ...
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On Mixing Macarons and Vicodin That winter split me like firewood. I was smaller, splintered, Elliot Smith would play on cassette in my blue Volkswagen, while our breath coursed through flared nostrils and damaged lungs. * I hid my pain ...
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Insignificance Late in life I struggle against my insignificance When I should enjoy the freedom from performance before an audience. Applause is happiness but if they withhold applause, embarrassment. When Da Liu put me to work crunching hexagrams and spreadsheet ...
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Life Science If only I was older, wiser than gapped tooth, golden haired twenty-two, I wouldn’t have wondered, what whiskered man is this?  His hair like a peppered moth, he sat stubbing cigarette butts into the ancient ruins of the ...
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Mammo At first, the grief was bare, an unsheathed sword, its presence sharp. But then it turned, slowly, into a faded tattoo on a hidden part of my body. I tried calling your phone last night. I don’t know what ...
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Elizabeth, Mother of my mother, her knotted knuckles cradled my scraped elbows, the heaviness of my childhood heart. Her beauty unrepeatable, blistering. She stands hunched over the sink, peeling potatoes, buttering bread, in the yellow light of the pre-war kitchen ...
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Sylvia’s Son I was wrapped in a towel like a bad dream, wet feet on linoleum. I was too preoccupied to see the cracked blood, to hear the silence until I was knee- deep in your tomb. Sometimes, I dreamt ...
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Resisting Arrest Uniting uniformed unity You and I defy the sky Team work and collaboration Up to personal discretion Civil Rights Civility Minorities against majorities Stick to the status quo But should we...? Really? Defy thy stars And seek new ...
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MORNING RUN by Norbert Kovacs (Originally published in FIVE:2:ONE's #thesideshow, May 12, 2018. The author has revised the text.) For three weeks, Phil's veins ran with anticipation. He woke with a tingling in his arms and a warmth suffusing his ...
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