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There are too many imperfections that bleed over into ugly…
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I nodded my thanks and gave each kid a sticker of their choosing. I have ten thousand stickers, it’s the least I can do.
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Hope is what people “hang on to,” whatever that means, when they know they’ve lost but are stubborn and want to disappoint themselves.
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I’m reading. Is that waiting to die or living?
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Shawn will always be one of my kids, even though he’s been a grown-assed man for at least thirty years now. I remember certain students for random reasons. Shawn was a twin, a brilliant one. Blonde, nice looking, a sweeter young man with manners you’d never meet. He was a creative writer, but he’d never…
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He was matter of fact, but I was shaking in my boots. I didn’t see this day coming so soon.
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Late at night, when Abe took off his hat, he crumbled like a cookie in a coffee cup of doubt.
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My trip ended too quickly, but before it did, I made a crucial but wonderful mistake.
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Goulash
Image generated with AI. “I’m making goulash for dinner tonight. I’m going to use Mom’s recipe too.” said Janice. Mason hoped she remembered the recipe. Sometimes her memory of her Mom’s dishes were sketchy and turned out awful like the soup. He was skeptical of this goulash stuff. It had a weird name to it… Read more
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Solace
Image generated with AI. In the old stories, when life went sideways, the princess had to go to the haunted forest to find the oracle. Diane thought she might as well give it a shot. It was a hundred degrees outside. The creek was ankle deep, the shade dappled and dark. She’d start looking here.… Read more
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Mama’s Revenge
Image generated with AI. “Did I miss a message?” She knew her son’s intentions, she just thought he knew better, she didn’t want to get into a sniping match, so she shut up. Some things were better left unsaid. Mama didn’t like it when her boy kept her car out all night without asking. “I… Read more
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Potato Salad
Image generated with AI When I go outside, summer smells like rain and cut grass. If I sit on my rocking chair on the back porch, I smell the deep green dirt and dead leaves of forest earth supporting my flowers. The deadfall of the yard, dotted with bright pink begonias and orange, fuchsia, and… Read more
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Promise and Truth
Image generated with AI Alice Krudworthy gave up on lying a long time ago. She quit making up shit, but would often omit certain details to bend the thinking of whomever she was talking to. “What did you have for dinner?” Someone would ask innocuously. “Salad, with apples, chickpeas, avocados, tomatoes, and crab. I made… Read more
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There are too many imperfections that bleed over into ugly…
-
I nodded my thanks and gave each kid a sticker of their choosing. I have ten thousand stickers, it’s the least I can do.
-
Hope is what people “hang on to,” whatever that means, when they know they’ve lost but are stubborn and want to disappoint themselves.
-
I’m reading. Is that waiting to die or living?
-
Shawn will always be one of my kids, even though he’s been a grown-assed man for at least thirty years now. I remember certain students for random reasons. Shawn was a twin, a brilliant one. Blonde, nice looking, a sweeter young man with manners you’d never meet. He was a creative writer, but he’d never…
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He was matter of fact, but I was shaking in my boots. I didn’t see this day coming so soon.
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Late at night, when Abe took off his hat, he crumbled like a cookie in a coffee cup of doubt.
-
My trip ended too quickly, but before it did, I made a crucial but wonderful mistake.
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The Last of the Three Wishes
The genie granted me three wishes and of course the first two came true in a blaze of glory. He told me to be wise with my wishes and I felt that I was, foolishment was meant for sissies, I wanted all my wishes to mean something. To be granted wishes was nothing to sneeze…
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The Accident
The first job Lucy had was in Brunetti’s Family Restaurant waiting tables, fast paced and busy. You had to be light on your feet and quick in your head to keep up with the baked steak and chicken and dumplin’s coming out of the kitchen. Who got iced tea with lemon and who didn’t mattered…
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Remote Learning
With rigid rigor, the school board called a two hour delay for students in ice and snow before any roads had even been treated after an all night snow storm. Employees were to report on time. In an abrupt change of plans, half an hour before school was supposed to begin, a remote day was…
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Hand me downs
“Let’s go to Goodwill,” said Ian. “I need to get Mom a birthday present.” He knew there was nothing I wanted more than an antique butter dish with a lid, and the best place to find it was at a thrift shop. Goodwill came to his mind first. Thrift shops carried specialty items. Like the…
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Vocabulary Promise
The truth is a burning promise I have to live up to or lie about. Truth comes in lots of flavors. It’s easier to lie and ignore what’s in front of me sometimes. Knowing what I have to do to live up to the standards of school, or home, or law. I’d rather live one…
Devonne Brown 