The Trouble with Happiness

The Trouble with Happiness

When I was seventeen we moved into a three room apartment, in what my mother called “a better neighborhood.” The monthly rent was twenty kroner…

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Extinctions By Josephine Wilson

Book Review

With Extinctions, Tin House Books has published an exceptional novel, smart in so many ways. Josephine Wilson’s writing is superb, the plot refreshingly original, characters…

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Inventing Words

Inventing Words

condifluoia/ˈkɒndɪfluːɪɑ/noun: condifluoia; plural noun: condifluoia 1. the specific scent of tea leaves inboiling water when it soaks in sixstrands of freshly grated ginger on thehand-shredder,…

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Pirouettes in Bed

Pirouettes in Bed

i’m drinking spring water in your bedroom naked head swept back and i can feel you watching my every move or memorizing my arms as…

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Mr President

Mr President

I need to tell you about the old man sitting cross-legged on the crackedconcrete outside the Life building lifting drowningants out of a puddle with…

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Family Portrait

Family Portrait

I. Pudgal, my grandmother explained, is the matter that sticksto your soul when you do a bad thing.Cloistered in the sunlight, stippled skin gleamingDidi probably…

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StarLab 2020

StarLab 2020

One of my kids is crying because a girl in the other second grade class fainted during the experience:    A mobile planetarium in the gym,   harsh…

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As if the zither wouldn’t quiver

As if the zither wouldn’t quiver

As if the zither wouldn’t quiverVibrate its songThe reconciliation between various components of the familyThe doubtful connectionBetween the kiss of associationAnd loveThe drum double drummingOf…

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Wild

Wild

“Like I was suddenly some safer form of fire”-Ada Limon Parallel Mustangs revving at an intersectionBack and forthLike a conversation Between Neanderthals listing their killsAround…

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Once upon a February

Once upon a February

I’m much more than a monthSo much longer than a dayI’m that which America fears to teachI’m more than the constitution will ever sayI’m in…

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Lie Down

Lie Down

It’s okay to dieStanding upA beetle-eatenPine on the slopeOf Mt. Baldy You’re not aloneOne day you justLie down in the brownNeedle-hay that was youTo begin…

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Elegy for Half Measures

Elegy for Half Measures

I’m not about to say it’s anythingother than a coincidence, the factthat somebody in my group over twohundred miles from Bellinghamknows of Jeff Mixdorf, knows…

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Dhaka

Dhaka

Hurt people, there is no forever.Hurt people, always remember.— Fuad Ahmed Buriganga River washes the feet of your sons,Meghna River bathes ankles of your daughters….

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A Wal-mart at the end of the World

A Wal-mart at the end of the World

is spic and span; you could eat off the floorif there was a floor; there isn’t, justa huge hole you can’t see at first, as…

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The Heart Asked Me  to Please Take It Home

The Heart Asked Me to Please Take It Home

In a plastic container wrapped in ice packs,a human heart sat next to me on the plane.I queried the flight attendant about the heartin the…

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Anthropology

Anthropology

My friend says that everythingis anthropology: chess playersin Tompkins Square, the lineof cars at Starbucks, preteen girlsfilming Tik Tok videos. But the young girl, baby…

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In an Irish Pub, After a Funeral

In an Irish Pub, After a Funeral

It’s March. The earth is dirge-soft with daffodils.  The rain goes through seven stages of grief. When I was a girl, the first daffodils I…

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