Category: Miz Q
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Q2 & Q6: The Sheepish Side of Imaginary Dreams
THE SHEEPISH SIDE OF IMAGINARY DREAMS We’re on the old roadto the sea.An afternoon driveagainst sharp winter sun. Dressed warm,a woolly jumper,thick socks, and old bootswith knotted laces. County roads and potholes. It’s like driving on a dinosaur’s back. And the car’s developed a chirp. It’s a prick in my ear, the sort of sound…
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Q5: How to Take the Hiss Out of a Snake
HOW TO TAKE THE HISS OUT OF A SNAKE Rain.It spillson the window,cursive writinglike hands knottedthat rememberthings I’ve alwayswanted to do. I once worked on an assembly line making flat-pack strawberry boxes. I just wanted someone to talk to while the boys were at school. But talking was forbidden, except during break. The moon.The stars.There’s…
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Q5: In and Out of an Imaginary Dream
IN AND OUT OF AN IMAGINARY DREAM A dream.And I wake with a pebble of an idealodged in my brain that there was a tablewith me on one side and on the otherthe unborn and dead. My babies lostbefore term, grandparents, my parents, a husband,three dogs, and that seagull that hitthe window like a stone.…
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Q4: The Grimm Side of Imaginary Dreams
THE GRIMM SIDE OF IMAGINARY DREAMS There’s rolling fog, poison ivy, and there’s a woman in black with a nose like a bat and wings like rhubarb leaves, and there’s these seven little men wearing billy goat chins who juggle seven red apples between them. And my first grade teacher is dressed up like a…
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Q3+1: The Café of Imaginary Dreams
TWO EGGS OF IMAGINARY DREAMS My waitress … is it still waitress or is it a waitperson now… is standing over meand staring across the street.I think she’d ratherbe working over there. And she says,You ready to order? She shifts from one foot…
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Q3: Children’s Menu at the Café of Imaginary Dreams
The Autistic Children’s Menu at the Cafe of Imaginary Dreams It’s the nuggets.Always the nuggets.No sauce.He hates sauce. Can I substitute saucefor waffles, he asks.May I, says his mother.Yes you can, says the waitress. And he hates all the noise.It’s always the noise.Knives and forks and platesand the chewing chewing. May you turn off the…
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Quickly’s Day 3: The Sounds of Imaginary Dreams
Prose: The Sounds of Imaginary Dreams It was either the Goodwill or the Salvation Army, the later being situated on a steep slope toward the lake, and the former making no impression on my memory whatsoever. It was where I bought my first radio. It was silver. Dad painted it blue, from the same pot…
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Bloganuary Day 1
TEN THINGS I’D TELL MY MUCH YOUNGER SELF 1.She will make you a donkey, though she says it’s a bear, and you’ll name it Cedric, (go ahead and spell it with an S if that’s what you want). You’ll take him with you everywhere, and his ear will fall off. 2.You’re the only one you’ve…
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Falling Back on Miz Quickly: The Table
THE TABLE (in three parts) … that meal of polenta filled tamales, that New Years dinner in Colombia when I had flu, fever, and a gnashing headache. that meal I couldn’t face, couldn’t eat it. I was so embarrassed. apologetic. for three days, she prepared that meal. she looked so sad when I left the…
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Miz Quickly’s Titles: Eagle
There’s an Eagle Sitting on the Marlboro Sign I’m at a loss with all these signs.I need some Left Right signs.This Way Up. Down. Yes. No. I always think: what would Dad do. I still talk to you, you know,like you’re a fixed star,still governing my lifeand direction. And yes, that’s me occasionallyscreaming at the…
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