What It Isn’t Old evidences of decay Still linger in the mind And little that you do or say Seems apposite or kind. You preach more often than you pray, You lose more than you find. It isn’t what you take away. It’s what you leave behind. You win so rarely when you play; The […]

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THE DOUBLE The witness Jones attests by affidavit That you were present at the seminar All of the day in question. He asked you for your number and you gave it. He’s quoted from your repartee At lunch and, when you broke at three, He came to collect a pamphlet from your car— And this […]

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The Blessings of Saint Vincent Saint Vincent, patron saint of student clothing, bequeathed to me from the depths and twists of his sorting tables, a perfect Victorian camisole, every stitch scaled in sixteenths of an inch, pin-tucked lawn and pale silk ribbon that threaded the three deep inches of lace to play, across the breasts […]

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Short Boots Twenty five dollar boots from Cooks— on Oxford Street, cow hide, Cowgirl-style, embossed, with a Cuban heel, you meant business and when, at eighteen, I walked home in the hot compression of summer after work, the local mongrels once formed a pack, the first, hair-sprung snarling, rushed to introduce his throat to the […]

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Dealing with obese women Fat women don’t have feelings— They are, by definition, jolly, Bluff, a bit obtuse. No need to watch your words— Like foreigners and children, They don’t speak the language. Despite their bulk, They’re easy to ignore, and All of them look strangely similar. When next you meet one, Remember, if communication […]

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Surreal Elements in a Relationship He wore jeans and a singlet boots and a watch which he hung over the chair like a Dali watch it grew bigger and bigger while I grew smaller and smaller he said my moustache made me look like a man I said his moustache made him look absurd I […]

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Glass Slipper My beautiful, blue-eyed boy grown so tall and strong and strange, able to make a living not a life, beloved but ill-equipped to love your lovely, laughing girl who barely hesitates as he draws her into the slow, somnambulant dance of the unrequited, taking up the 3:4 rhythm like a heart born to […]

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Chandelier-Tree I find myself staring at the spaces between fronds, where pure blue plumes appear, the air painting itself on my eye. And I see how the trunk doesn’t end where a person can climb, but continues to the redwood’s true crown, sky-feathers piercing the stratosphere, blue forest on blue, some white with lace frills […]

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