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Under pillows of snow, the creek shushes the sharp architecture of ice.

He thought about kissing her. Then he decided that she was just lonely.

My mother used to cry in church seeing a child walk down the aisle.

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

I reach in, blind hand finds what I’ve already seen, only one front foot.

The room barely fit a bed, a chest of drawers, and a rocker, all not hers.

home is his hands, our bowls, so many gay fridge magnets.

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

Don’t start conversations or attract attention. Don’t be suspicious.

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

Thus John Redding grew to manhood, playing, studying and dreaming.

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

It was the day I told a lie that would embarrass me for years to come.

They give me a pitying look, as if I am alone, and they are invincible.

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

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

It was a very strange dinner. I didn’t dare ask my parents questions.

Instead of attunement, I was given a pair of size 6 Toughskins.

First a mother puts her child to sleep, then the other way around.

All my life, I’d been shy, and I wasn’t about to change that.

He can’t remember the last time they made love. It has become a game.

There was something that eluded me, that was always outside the frame.

Some portion of love is braided from lying, from the names of distance.

She was so beautiful and sweet to us. I remember she laughed a lot.

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

“We know what can happen,” Mike says. “We choose to do this.”

Over the air conditioner, she hears, unmistakable, the bleating of a siren.

Don’t send me home without a round of applause if not a title.

Something has to be what this is, old and primitive, and it sounds like this.

Lynn Freed reads from her collection, The Curse of the Appropriate Man.