Most discussed stories

If Only it Were So

12971297 views88 comments44 favs

In the moment I crinkle the aluminum foil, The sandwich now a deeper Part of me

Paper Thin

10061006 views88 comments55 favs

She slipspaper thinshe ripspaper thin

halloween haiku

17961796 views88 comments77 favs

a dry bony voice/from a desiccated soul/coughs up its own throat.

Machine-Gunning Butterflies

17521752 views88 comments33 favs

I was making good bread as a New York studio musician and jingle writer, anonymous back-room jobs.

Parcel

17171717 views88 comments66 favs

you hear the knell of kindness long before its cathedral voices -- a recessional -- barters better times.

Chapel of a Latter Day Agoraphobic

12101210 views88 comments55 favs

The thrum and the thrust// have beaten conviviality out of me.

Lunatic Fruit

18231823 views88 comments66 favs

wild eyes open your iris sunrise

Confessions of a Cursing Librarian

15871587 views88 comments44 favs

Under no circumstances can you say "fuck" when you're working in a public library. Especially in the junior room.

THE BIRTH OF THE BLUES

17391739 views88 comments77 favs

The blues were born on the ghost train that rolled through the Delta and gave Memphis breath back in 1902. It's low moaning sound brought young black men running, dogs hot in pursuit, toward glory that danced in a moonlight…

ANYONE but Shakespeare

23182318 views88 comments66 favs

Shakespeare was Shakespeare, after all, the greatest poet the language has ever boasted: why did Shakespeare’s contemporaries even bother with their paltry efforts?

When the Moon Blooms

16111611 views88 comments66 favs

Your faded presence in sepia dream returns, firelight whispers and vanilla scented ash. We were a beautiful knot: sinew and hemp, burlap and magnolia petal, concrete and vapor. Gray kisses hovered overhead, misty…

Indestructible

989989 views88 comments22 favs

With furrowed brow, he took the plastic stems and began to beat the blossom ends against the black brick wall.

A Paper that Changes Things

14921492 views88 comments11 fav

The dowdy woman in fart nailed the vim.

12 Dreams

16461646 views88 comments00 favs

That dog again; enduring love.

YMCA

12531253 views88 comments00 favs

absolute bullshit

Lingua Materna, Lingua Imperiale

12261226 views88 comments77 favs

arrogant, sullen,/ supple and ambiguous,// English seems the ideal tongue

Against Romanticism

17141714 views88 comments55 favs

And because the film is French, the camera pauses / long moments at the curve of her neck, it watches/ her finger vermilion tulips in a vase. Her new lover,/ a wisp of a man, looks good in leather./ The camera pans quickly across beige suede,/ rests long

500 Words or Less

23392339 views88 comments77 favs

A brief commentary on the uselessness of endings.

Double Sonnet I

12691269 views88 comments55 favs

We love our other animals

Chapter Two: Oracle

15241524 views88 comments77 favs

The first thing I saw was a sandal, but it didn't exactly look priestly. It was golden and glowing, and the foot it was strapped to had red painted nails. The straps wrapped around her ankles, and up her slender leg, tied off in a bow below the knee.

1 col 24 point heading here

13341334 views88 comments22 favs

I had ink for blood then and “the news” was my oxygen.

How to Travel with your Demons (1)

25172517 views88 comments66 favs

Someone's shaking powdered sugar on the tree limbs. Someone's turned out the lights. It's a beautiful morning.

Museum Pieces

13241324 views88 comments77 favs

The lecturers are retired professors from Oxford or Cambridge. They are snarky and wise and aloof.

Swoon

16231623 views88 comments77 favs

Tender veterinarian, even if you weren't so tall, or your eyes so warm, or your fingers so long, or if you didn't bend over my sick cat with such astounding grace, or shoot those quick, intense glances at me, I'd have woven dreams while in your uncommon presence. Vulnerable…

Loveless Lover

13641364 views88 comments55 favs

Love me like a crutch Love me when I'm strong

Still Life with a Bottle of Olives

19611961 views88 comments55 favs

On the table the image is by Chardin but the puzzle is by someone else and that is what he has dumped out of the box.

Greenback Fly

15271527 views88 comments77 favs

It doesn't take a genius to figure how he sank, in the drink, like Jeff Buckley. Like a stone.

Three Houses Down

17461746 views88 comments33 favs

I walked on hot coals. She got ahead of me. (228 words)

Norm Never Says

16261626 views88 comments33 favs

He was supposed to be a garden gnome. Give pause to the squirrels, keep an eye on the impatiums. We found him at Wegman’s. He looked hopeful and observant.

Snake Eyes

15641564 views88 comments55 favs

Not believing enough in God he was made unfortunate. Neither cursed nor damned; merely little things. Missing rides, running out of toilet paper, showing up late. Until, suspecting someone he had overlooked, he chose a God. The wrong One it transpired. Things…