"Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure. I'm 43. I'm sure."

"It's a big decision. It's a life."

"Don't you think I know that? I'm... more

She had death in her hands, in her heart, in the americ tang of her angry sweat: she was jealous of a piece of bread. It was a dark,... more

I.

Deirdre doesn't talk to Nicole anymore, but she thinks she does. Last winter, six months went by with neither one of them saying... more

1. Ionization

In a city where everything feels a bit belated, where the clever ones... more

Kitty peeled dead flies off the screen. She squinted in the direction of the boatyard. "No boats today," she muttered to... more

Leonard Crank is an ass. He's a beer-in-a-can-drinking, White-Owl-cigar-smoking, wife-beater-wearing, greasy-haired slug. He... more

"Rita, I know you've slept with one of your cousins," Mom told me this morning at brunch.

My stomach kicked. I stopped chewing... more

He sits in his chair, absently running his fingers through his thinning white hair. She hunches on the sofa, quivering, holding a... more

A ticket to watch Cindy do her striptease cost a dollar and an ice cream.

Terms and conditions of business were:

1) The... more

1

My father’s ashes clumped on the way to Smith Mountain Lake—it was probably the humidity. We had transferred his ashes from the... more

Dina stood on the edge of the platform. She liked to feel the rush of the subway as it roared past. It was midnight. She was coming from a... more

The next morning, you get a call from the Days Inn Akron South and he tells you he’s been in an accident. He is unhurt but crying... more

He smokes overhanded like a soldier. She notices that right away. He's hiding the glowing ember in the cup of his hand just like he's... more

“Matsuzaka’s pitching motion is an elegant haiku, beauty captured in three parts separated by two... more

Mark took a pencil out of his royal blue gym bag. He hunted for a scrap of notebook paper, something to write on, but all he could... more

It's the middle of May, and the temperature has leveled off at a balmy 42 degrees at 7:30 p.m . This is why there were only... more

Outside the apartment I'm leaving, in a spread out triangle of park benches on an oversized traffic island lined around the... more

Eadweard Muybridge invented the photographic process called stop-motion photography, his most famous a series of... more

The man wiped his mouth with a silk handkerchief embroidered with his initials ($75.- a piece). He had just... more

That day, when the nurses hugged her and welcomed her to the hospice, it all came together. Silke belonged here. She... more

1. When I was sixteen I wrote a poem that started: As the years press down, I will remember... more

Carl Harlon had a singular, stunning thought as he balanced himself against the carnival’s bright orange plastic storm fence: she is... more

Rueben, since he is on acid and can do things like that, brings Venus right out of the painting that hangs in the bathroom at the... more

First he was on top and then she was on top and then he bent her over a chair and then she sat on the chair and pulled his head down.... more

I should put you on the plane. The plane you’ll take to the bus you’ll take to the car you’ll drive home. I should put you on that... more