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Tell Me in Italian

She pulls quickly on her cigarette and blows it at me through the phone.

Ten Landscapes

“If the world is becoming a void, the artist must fill it with his soul.”

Terminal Depression: Is It Just Me?

I want to dispute that depression is by definition pathological.

That Ain’t Jazz

They drink hard liquor and growl about which musicians are hot.

That Final Paper You Want from Me

The consensus was that all the great writers drank way too much.

That Summer, with Horses

My father was at an awful disadvantage in a sport where cunning is a virtue.

The Adventure of the Illustrious Client

Both Sherlock Holmes and I had a weakness for the Turkish bath.

The Aphorisms of Henry Adams

The woman who is known only through a man is known wrong.

The Applicant

I’m still in love with this filthy city, but now I know Berlin's love isn’t free.

The Art of Becoming a Citizen: A Meditation

It begins on the sunny morning of November 14, 1960.

The Barbarians

It was good they were Africans, she thought. It meant less danger.

The Beauty of the Night

All was hushed and stonily still, like the moon and its lights and shadows.

The Beginnings of a Storm

It’s a mistake to be here, he thinks, but he doesn’t turn around.

The Blue Hotel

“I suppose there have been a good many men killed in this room.”

The Bone Trees

The trees were a sign from the devil, a warning of the terror to come.

The Bridge

“Look down,” I said, comb in hand. “Let me check behind your ears.”

The Brother

He held a screwdriver to the fleshy underside of Peggy’s neck.

The Building Permit

They tried to kill us, my sisters, mother, and me; I still have the scars.

The Bulls at San Luis

Stopping it, Cye knows, is like stopping a tsunami with a tennis racket.

The Buried Coal Miners at Sipesville

Men veer into the earth and don’t come out. Silent choirs of canaries roost in a forest of chimneys.

The Captain’s Roses

In that instant, Niel lost one of the most beautiful things in his life.

The Caterer

This is not America! It is not the America I grew up in, it’s
a joke.

The Child-Who-Was-Tired

The Church of Abundant Life

“Ki-Tae the famous pastor,” Jae says to her. “Can you believe life.”

The Clock of Paradise

The cottage stood as a metaphor for what she wanted out of life.

The Complaint

Our remarks must be tempered by a sense of cooperation.

The Crazing of the Lagniappe

A gift tells you who you are and what you’re not in the eyes of others.

The Curse of the Starving Class

Ambition and coincidence had led me to the Royal Theatre.

The Cutter

He’s got a nice, deep kind of voice. He doesn’t sound redneck at all.

The Damn Pin Cracked

His mind was a glass vase shat-
tered into pieces across the floor.