Most discussed stories

M. Nerveux Chronicles: Toad Suffers a Bad Business

12611261 views77 comments88 favs

Herr Toad smokin'

Nevertheless The Plan Was Not Implemented

24982498 views77 comments55 favs

Thomas Friedman was right when he said, “Much of this biodiversity in Indonesia is now under threat.” It had been this way since gasoline became currency; I remember bartering with The Governance for the newest edition of The Guinness Book of

They Would Judge His Trespasses

17811781 views77 comments22 favs

They waited until the crowd was gone before making their move. Gill kept watch while Warren bypassed the lock. “You sure about this?” Gill whispered. Voices echoed down the hall of the museum.

Momma and Me

15701570 views77 comments66 favs

On Saturdays, we pull out big white poster boards, magic markers, and draw babies.

Owl, Glass, Deer

14691469 views77 comments44 favs

He calls it an owl glass: he’s allowed: he’s six.

Kill it

16391639 views77 comments66 favs

my dog had a tumor

My Dad was a ditch digger

13371337 views77 comments66 favs

men sitting on stoops women earning the rent by working as servants in the rich folks yard

Skindeep

11041104 views77 comments66 favs

I feel a hand on my leg, and look down to see the little girl touching the horse on my ankle.

Iowa

13471347 views77 comments66 favs

"It was John-Darren who once told me that he felt sorry for women."

why are we feeding the lawyer?

15051505 views77 comments11 fav

They were press­ing her about the money, it was always about the money.

Remarkable Depths of Semantic Ambiguity

19021902 views77 comments77 favs

Thank you for submitting your epic poem I, I, I for consideration. While we are encouraged that you have relented from the ruthless self-endictment you affected so unconvincingly in your previous entry, Why Am I...

My Literary Pockets

14201420 views77 comments44 favs

I don’t know what to do with all this money flowing from my books. It’s burning a hole in my literary pocket.

Ares Considers a Career Change

10391039 views77 comments66 favs

Barbarians and savages wore feathers/ or frightful face paint or skin tones// one could recognize and aim for/ with weapons one could feel

The Safety of Breakers

12531253 views77 comments77 favs

I could put on some music, but it just pushes me further away from you, so it seems. It takes me out far beyond the safety breakers and then reintroduces me to my own splashing two-fisted fear of swimming. You can swim through …

Date Night

14051405 views77 comments77 favs

Content may contain ordinary, everyday, and all around average happenings.

Straight Out of the Can

34023402 views77 comments88 favs

My other brother, Mike, has been camping out with the Carter boys down the street. For breakfast, he had beans, straight out of a can, and they were the best thing he ever ate. “These are the best,” he told them. “The best beans?” Joe, t

Fin

16641664 views77 comments11 fav

She doesn’t answer. Ten minutes slide by unmolested in the anesthesia of cheap wine and resignation, the bouncers blurring and unblurring, the room dimming, quieting, the kaleidoscope of sundown giving way to the gentle sadness of candlelight.

The Rhythm of the Cows

15541554 views77 comments44 favs

A cow wanders onto a roof and falls through the skylight. It's a calamity, but such an innocent mistake. Mightn't you amble onto a rooftop once upon a full winter snow in Vermont?Another cow climbs a gravel mound in…

Mausoleum

14441444 views77 comments66 favs

you might as well be blind

Make Music, Not Love

14461446 views77 comments77 favs

We are/no more than heartbeats on repeat.

Retribution

981981 views77 comments55 favs

There could be a Reagan circle/ with a Maggie Thatcher suite.

On the Roof

13941394 views77 comments66 favs

Marie was on the roof. The deck, with its cool concrete pavers and faded cedar Adirondack chairs, was one of the reasons she and Harold had bought their condo in this building. The only ugly part of the roof was the chain-link fence along its edge; soon after they moved…

We'll Always Have Bakersfield

14091409 views77 comments66 favs

"I tell you about ten other men who want to love me and two I could kiss in the smoking room of a jazz club, you wonder if I’d love anyone."

A Circus Never to Return

17191719 views77 comments77 favs

But on arrival Darlene was in no prompt mood to undress. "There's some ugly sumpthin' out there along the fence, looks like it's gnawin' on sumpthin' dead."

Tuonela

11311131 views77 comments55 favs

Just a lot of honking and hissing.

A Safe Distance

16041604 views77 comments44 favs

Poems, and Zebras

Calypso

23002300 views77 comments44 favs

For here in the vortex are no other laws, Than separate towards you I and skirting stone- To wards where wavelets purr against their pause A moment more, to yawn to omicron… Inside the seashell orchard's whirl-quick floor- Come all at once to me or…

where horses stood ground

14641464 views77 comments66 favs

Where horses once were tethered grows their grass . . .

Chinese Apples

41234123 views77 comments99 favs

Mother still calls pomegranates “Chinese apples,” much to my embarrassment.

Nearsighted Singers, Your Time Has Come

13871387 views77 comments44 favs

An old man in overalls with rags on his head known locally as Bo Peep made his way up from the black side of town to the white. After listening for a few moments, he shook his head in disgust. “Boy, you can’t play them blues.”