Most discussed stories

Casting It

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Truth came out of it, a little bug that hovered there...

Bubble Gum and Paperback Books

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A block after his first crime, he found a bookstore to commit another.

Shameful Maneuvers

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Most of the boys I pretended to marry thought my classroom seductions were funny, but there is a chance that one of the boys turned violent against me.

Gods Sense of Humor (April Fools Challenge)

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I wonder, God. Do you sit around and play with the universe like it was your Wii? Or your Farmville? Or maybe your little iphone app? I mean, really. Did it ever occur to you that the little men, women and children on your screen actually bleed? Do you think…

Invisible Grime

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Most everything is white because white means clean and hospitals are supposed to be clean. They wouldn’t let me leave.

When the Songbirds Went Silent in Cheerytown

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What happens to a town when all of its songbirds go on strike?

For my lost child

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and where have the years sped how distant was your youth

Ankles

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At five o’clock Jake joins the crowd at the back door, walks through the slush to the parking lot with Betty Boop.

As the Lights Dim

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AS THE LIGHT DIMS …

Beachcomber's dirge

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...clash of gulls wend upwards, disappearing into grey night's high tide recedes

The Night Before School Starts

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A familiar ritual by now...

Monsieur Editor and Madame Malaprop

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They slept in the same bed but that was all they had in common. He, an editor, had shelves filled with literary works and she, his wife of many years and never much of a reader, had strewn their penthouse apartment with Madeline children’s books.

Bandits in the Afternoon Rain

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Somewhere there are fires burning in oil barrels, ragged homeless men warming torn-mittened hands―one day I'll be with them.

The Highwayman Teaches Me About Sex and Death

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hooves moon dark latch eyes rope / Bess the landlord's daughter, the landlord's blackeyed daughter / gun breasts dress shame shouts blood blood blood

Oh, Myth...

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Philip Ahearn woke up in an empty field. Last night had been one hell of a party - he almost hooked up with Rosamund - and, at the time, it seemed wiser to crash outside than to drive and really crash. But he wasn't a kid anymore and sleeping on the…

2001, What I Wanted

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feet that would run until their soles were pages of Gideon’s Bibles, worn too thin to touch

Max Beckmann Poem

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the unutterable things of this world

sing of my neck

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You could have drawn us forth anytime on the beach, harping, begging to be let go from the grasp of your song. I needed you to sing of my neck, with its ropes teeming and filled. You only had to spread me open and loosen the shuddering country, anytime.

A Diminishing Verse on Diminishing Returns

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My banker said, "We've millions we can spare,

Scar

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If he doesn't bite, I'm out of here.

Perchance to Dream

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Catherine, after another haunted, bewildering morning wondered if there might be a way to hide from her nightmares. Was there a way to trick them? Shouldn't she try? She drove over the bridge, something she didn't often do, to buy…

Breakfast

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Wake up, stretch. Check the curtained windows for sunlight or that dreaded grey frame that forces the covers to come back up and the alarm clock to be set to ‘Snooze’.

Briefly, on Dive Bars

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Every dive bar has a Max. Max is an elderly man. He wears a dented ball cap. He sits at the end of the bar, right along where it curves and then slams into the wall. You may find it cliché, but when Max enters the room, the patrons actually announce, “

The Important Story

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The best thing about being a cowboy is the cows.

Announcing Human Season

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Contest rules are simple. Two teams of five hunters each are established by drawing from pools of interested volunteers and selected prison inmates confined for capital crimes and illegal immigration.

The Yawn

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La Petite Ange had lived all her life in Paris under the strange architectural twists of Notre Dame. She had been a Bluebell girl once, kicking her surprisingly long legs into the air to the delight of plumbers and Prince du…

Cabinet of Particulars

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incoming made of dust

ace in the hole

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hookers are better educated these days

Wired

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He got up to the pulpit and said that he thought he might have made a mistake. I will never forget the desperate look on his face. He recalled being at his Ivy League school and wondering just what he was interested in upon his graduation and what would b

How To Make It In America

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The punchable faces in Manhattan multiply like cancer...