THE ARCHIVE

Miss Nomer

Oh, how I nearly felt, in the midst of all that looking. Though, as a matter of fact, where I saw my own reflection may

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Collage No. 1

I never tell anyone this. I cried when Leonard Cohen died. I moved here to drink his tap water. I took a job at the

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Therapy

Regina didn’t understand—or, rather, she understood too much. She watched herself from a few feet above the therapy chair, performing a kind of kinetic dissociation.

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Royal Visit

The infant’s portrait faced Lafayette Gardens, and from my balcony, I could not see any of it, neither the small pink casket encased in glass

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The Ritual

George lived in a small cottage house behind the church, and he looked like an exorcist even though he wasn’t one. If exorcism was a

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The Shit List

I am not like other girls.  Not in the way that rejects femininity, or sameness, or pop culture, or the sisterhood of womanness, but in

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Worm Dance

There was only one woodcock at Bryant Park today. He or she did not feel like dancing. The bird stared back at the row of

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Sparrow

The sparrow said I have cancer, and now I’m not sure what to do. I know he’s right, I suspected it long before last night

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N.D.A.

I haven’t told my boss. I haven’t told my coworkers, either. I’m only telling you because somebody needs to know the story — the whole

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Floral

I was a logical kid when I was five. I believed in science—like solar systems, aquariums, all of it. I knew that sounded somehow funny

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A Case of the Mondays

It was another Monday. Unlike the lucky ones who got to work from home, Sheila had to commute every Monday for 45 minutes on the

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Jukebox, Etc.

“In Penny Lane there is a barber showing photographs Of every head he’s had the pleasure to know And all the people that come and

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Egg Salad

In my opinion there are times when eating in public should be illegal. Eating citrus in any communal place is one of them. The scent

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Footnote to a Footnote

I’m with you in…   Rockford, where the sock monkeys sing working songs to no one Rockford, where the steel beams keep climbing and climbing

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Pharmaceutical Topography

The pill has its own ontology. Its scored bisection is not just a pharmaceutical convenience but a goddamn epistemological event horizon. Fifteen milligrams. Twice daily.

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It Begins

It begins the night before. After dinner—roasted beef, dark from the pot and a jacket potato your mother punctured and filled with butter—you went to

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Yankee Slut

I dated this guy on and off for about a year, about a year ago. Well, to say “date” would be generous. We had a

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The Fifth

Poverty is the Fifth Horseman of Apocalypse that the Bible never told us about.  We know the other four: Death, Famine, War and Pestilence. If

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Bad Men

Babanbaba died when his youngest was only two, and he left behind girls and boys that grew up to become aunts and uncles. His wife

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Haunted

The first thing I do upon waking is listen for the bell. If it rings once, Cynthia has remembered what hunger feels like and wants

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Weird, NY

Man walks in the door. Girl is waiting for him at the bar. They kiss quickly on the lips.   “How did you get here?”

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Yes, Mr. President

“Mr. President, you’ve got to help me. I have nothing left,” pled the desperate man. “Rudy, I am sorry, but you did this to yourself.”

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Weird, NY

Chris, Boris, and Betsy face the audience in a cramped car bouncing along a dark country road. Its beams pick up dark deciduous forests and

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Surroundings and Self

The clock is ticking down. The clicking of laptop keys. Whispering when there shouldn’t be. Whispered greetings after a long break.  Clack, clack, clack go

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Lying

I have a talent for lying. People don’t believe me when I say this. It’s the Midwest in me, rooted deep— the tendency for enthusiasm

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Cameron

Cameron finally got home, right before midnight. I looked up from the TV and was glad he was alone. I hated his loser friends. He

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