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Good Neighbors

Her anger was white and cold. It sent seams of ice through my heart.

Granddaughters

Our grandmothers were bakers and nurses, spies and traitors.

Great Falls

Walking on Canal Street, I slipped on the curb and fell on my face.

Great Plains

All of those feelings—you do not have them, they have you.

Grendel’s Mother to the Spear Danes

you cut through brush with the iron edge you push before you

Hard

She has a small solid mess of troubles she longs to upchuck.

Her Lazy-Brained Boy

The world is a riddle of shape and texture, from sight to smell to sound.

Hidden Dangers of Camping

“Well, it’s a dark world, Suzanne. She’s old enough to know that.”

Hiking at Bee Rock

The most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen has become the saddest.

Hindu Kush

I pictured you at Bagram Airfield in a metal coffin, quiet and still.

How?

As the whorled fingerpad loves Morse, but more so. Worse.

Ice Fishing

I’m just wired hard for hunting, and not so much at all for fishing.

If I Could Speak Chinese

On the small of my daughter’s back is a two-inch tattoo. MADE IN CHINA.

In Sloane Street

Pushing by the man, he ran down the street towards the station.

In the Museum of the Americas

Divorced. Wife living with someone else. Pregnant with his child.

Is Glistening

The scent of lighter fluid and tobacco drifted in through the window.

I’m Sorry, Thank You

“You could come, too! No one’s forcing you to go to fucking China.”

Jangmi

It was as if we were shedding our very selves to become someone else.

Jennifer Egan

I’ve wavered in confidence, but never on whether I was going to write.

Jumpseat Stories

There’s something about traveling by plane. People tell their secrets.

Justice

Do we hunger after conflict as much as we hunger after justice?

Karyotype and Other Poems

There’s no studying for this. I think souls must exist in wanted things.

Kristina, Goodbye

I imagined myself magnanimous, but now I see. I have been cruel.

Labor and Delivery Unit, San Francisco, California

I never prayed before. Since this happened I’ve been praying every night.

Lake of the Meek

Virginia surprises herself: she wants this warmth, wants skin and breath.

Lament

Lean close and kiss each other: dig down as far as down goes.

Letters to a Young Writer

We lived below the poverty level. I wasn’t allowed to desire objects.

Letters to Bernadette

Remind the children never to use the state as a metric for ethics.

Little Gifts

His eyes, dark brown and unwavering as he delivered the details.

Little Ships

Eleanor opened the door to Nick’s bedroom and felt breathless with fury.