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Tell Me in Italian

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

Testament

It was comforting to see her suffer the way we suffer, hollowed out.

The Abandoned Flying Horse Carousel, 1879

Centrifugal force circled the beasts until they swirled airborne.

The Aging Body as a Japanese Garden

A woman pushing a walker understands—gravel can be pain.

The Arctic Variations

I have seen your ocean. I have heard your waves beside my bed.

The Baby Survives

Raw, glistening—god’s design. Her newborn flesh-on-the-bone.

The Barbarians

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

The Bathroom Wall Says: Women

It comes as no surprise that everything is flying toward one point.

The Bedwarmer

Anytime I drifted off I wished to wake up against a cold, silent body.

The Beginnings of a Storm

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

The Book of Light

She is a stalk, exhausted. She will surround these bones with flesh.

The Book of the Dead Man (Camouflage)

Watch out. That we thought him gone only proves his wily knowledge.

The Brute

I open the gift: a small ocelot, its mouth a cave, pearl teeth waiting.

The Building Permit

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

The Call of the One Duck Flying South

If you didn’t listen you would think it was a cry for help or sympathy.

The Catch

“I might surprise you,” Mr. Maxi said. Polly hoped he’d go all out.

The Choir

I walk and I rest while the eyes of my dead look through my own.

The Complicated Coast

Don’t tell him you’re a virgin, says Peggy. You’ll freak him out.

The Couple Who Fell to Earth

We went flying without a map as naked astronauts often do.

The Crab

We buy a bag of cockles and three crabs, all female, sweet with egg.

The Crossing

The underworld reached out for your hand and found payment.

The Crossing Guard

He’s clear about his wishes: to die in this house, in his own bed.

The Curse of the Starving Class

Ambition and coincidence had led me to the Royal Theatre.

The Death of Prince Andrei

“I can’t die, I don’t want to die, I love life,” Prince Andrei thought.

The Deer

In the truck’s bed, resting where a dog’s might—the dead deer’s head.

The Diezmo, Part One

They caught those few of us left unclaimed by the one emotion, or the other.

The Diezmo, Part Three

In exchange for our labor, we would each be given a new set of clothes.

The Diezmo, Part Two

I don’t think I was very frightened. I was simply hungry for home.

The Edith Poems

When I cried the tears felt so ineffective next to the ocean.

The Family Artist

He tossed her over his head like a ballerina, one rough hand on each hip.