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TOKYO MEMORIES
1. An older, silver-haired woman in neon green pants, a brown blouse and black shop apron stoops and carefully scrubs the alleyway outside her small shop. 2. Salarymen fill the tunnels of Kokkai-gijidomae station at 6 P.M., 7, 8, and in fewer numbers, 9, shuffling down the long corridors to the Chiyoda or Marunouchi Line trains,…
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A CONVERSATION
She said, “You’re breaking my heart,” as though it was a small twig which, stepped upon, splinters with a small pop, pieces flying in opposition, lost on the forest floor, waiting patiently for the next errant step to further subdivide until the bits are indistinguishable and slowly rot into the soil. I said, “My emotions…
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ERGO SUM
She says she was certain she exists much as she is certain he exists as well. He says she thinks she exists, and thinks he does as well. Descartes, he says was right, at least on that point. She says no, it is obvious, thoughts requires existence, sum ergo cogito, she says, is how it…
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APART TOGETHER
It is this time each night that I think of you lying in bed, your head pressed deep into your pillow your chest rising and falling to an unheard beat. I reach out for you and grasp the blanket of the hotel bed and imagine it is your back as I trace my finger down…
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ADAM’S RIB
Adam’s Rib was not, she said, a barbecue joint on Beale Street in downtown Memphis, nor a beloved Spencer Tracy movie in which sidelong glances with Kate Hepburn meant more than audiences realized. It most certainly was not proof of the claim that woman, born of man, was meant to be subservient for all time…
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OT
Standing in the garden soaking in the sudden downpour Eve turned to Adam and said, “Did you bring the umbrella?” “What’s an umbrella?” Adam asked. “I’m eating the apple” Eve replied.
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MEMORIAL
This woman approaches the stone, carefully places sake and cherry blossoms and leans a sotoba against it, before bowing and walking away. It is what you do for a son, she says, looking at the bibbed Jizo hoping she can protect the child who lies beneath. That woman approaches the headstone, gently places the flowers and leans…
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SEAL SONG
A young woman holds a mirror out to the sea as she sings a simple, sweet song to a cloud which lingers overhead. You want to ask her about this but you are afraid – afraid that she will forget the song and the small cloud that is your only shade will slip into the…
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DREAM WALKER
I listen for you in the night, your breathing sets the rhythm of my dreams. It was not always like this. Much as the cat craves a gentle stroking of her back, I long to trace your spine, measure each vertebra by the length of my caress, but I don’t want to pull you fitfully…
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LOVER
There is a moment just after the lights are turned off, when the ticking of the clock on the nightstand is amplified, reverberating off the skylights, when the heat of your body is a blanket from which I never wish to emerge.
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an old writer and his words 