He called to ask her out on Valentine’s and, after some hesitancy said: “Do you believe in poetry?”
She said, “I don’t believe in much of anything,” but she ended up going to the reading downtown with him anyway.
3-Ring Aftermath
Her parents finally stopped taking Susan to the circus. She had so much fun during the few hours they were there that she cried for days afterward because the rest of life was nothing like it.
Justifying Walls
I’m sometimes criticized for being cold but I opened up my heart once. All I have to show for it is an STD.
Cheap Thrill
They were teenagers when she traveled across the country for a visit, and there were no cultural activities to entertain her. So they ran through the dollar store and came out covered in tacky jewelry and fake tattoos.
For Whom the Bell Tolls
The day he received his rejection letter from Harvard, he buried his face in a towel and wept. He wasn’t sad for himself, but for his parents.
Seeking Proof
On Halloween, Benny hunted ghouls in the Shiners’ cemetery, even though he doubted they existed. Then after a Fez tassel slapped his face and a corpse bit into his skull, he believed, briefly.
A, B, or C?
When she thought about him, The Great Thing That Never Was, she could observe herself dissolving into a completely unpredictable mass of emotions and raw nerves. If she saw him again, would she say, “Fuck you,” or ignore him completely, or throw her arms around his neck?
Bad Break Up
Looking back, it wasn’t that bad.Sure he had lost an arm,some teeth and two toes,but at least he was alive.
Educated Poverty
He poured everything he had into his education. By the time he received his Master’s degree, he couldn’t afford to frame the diploma.
Pick-ups
They were stupidly passing time, re-telling the worst pick-up lines they’d ever heard. Out of the crowd, one stood out as the clear winner: “Baby, you’re so fine, I’d like to put you on a plate and sop you up with a biscuit!”
Silly Question
They walked into an expensive menswear shop, and the salesman asked rather ridiculously, “What brings you in today?” He raised his eyebrows and smiled, “Fate?”
Do take some.
At various stages of his life, he had dealt with grief in different ways. As a child he would cry; as a boy he would forget it by playing pointless games; as a teen he would drown it out with music and the everyday life, but nowadays he just wrote stories for strangers to read, hoping selfishly that they would perhaps take some of it away.
Justice
After a lengthy career of art theft, he was captured, tried, and sentenced to several years in jail. He got out, wrote a book about it, and made more off the royalties than he ever had off stolen art.
Endings and Beginnings
Halfway up the courthouse steps, she turns and waves goodbye. Noone waves back.
Gossip
After Adam, she decided she would never again date anyone her girlfriends wanted to set her up with. She needed to be able to confide in them but it seemed unfair and unkind to share things like: “Your friend is a premature ejaculator,” or “My massage therapist thinks he’s gay.”
Pictures
The thing he liked about the Straight Arrow Club was their magazine each month with the college girls in the tiny bathing suits. His father said the club was mostly like the Boy Scouts: TRUSTWORTHY, LOYAL, HELPFUL, that stuff, but at age 16 he papered his room with especially Miss November and Miss July –they had the greatest legs and bazooms.
Yes, to Be
To be or not to be, or to fly, or to be a bird, or an 8th grader, those are some of the questions. Answers are just more quesions in different clothing, for those 13 years old.
Orgins of Terrorism
Killing is easy when you have watched your family suffer every naked indignity. After than using the knives only felt normal and happiness was watching the blood gushing from their necks and stomachs.
The Cities Game
Centries old the struggle was only by men and the prize was women and everything else the loser had. It had started as a solution to war and an outlet for aggression and those who played well sometimes only had to play once, of course the losers only played the one time.
Too High to Joke about
“I’m way too high for this shit!” I shouted in the King Soopers produce section. The cop didn’t believe that I was diabetic and talking about my blood sugar.