Most discussed stories

Ode to an Afro (or Going Natural in a Corporate World)

11541154 views44 comments11 fav

In praise of the colorful flock with crowns of teased cotton candy rising high above Modular walls, stalled operating systems staling coffee and pale corner offices

Don't Trip On My Exit Switch

15231523 views44 comments44 favs

It’s nice, but, it’s weird not being in love, or maybe in love, sometimes in love. (Or, not in love. Frankly, we might be not in love.) Or, both of us might be. Or, only one of us might be. (Good lord, I hope it’s never me.)

O Starving Poet

10131013 views44 comments33 favs

A novel is an idea that has Survived many severe beatings While a poem is a homely thing that was Never even asked to the dance Art Speak, however, is the art of Systematically overstating and Re-inventing the Obvious to the point of Distr

To See the World in a Grain of Sand

35663566 views44 comments33 favs

What’s it like, sex? I ask her. You see that picture? she asks, nodding to the large canvas covered with a film of dust propped up against her bedroom wall. That picture’s the only thing she never sold. She hocked it a few times but always got the

Raw Sugar

14791479 views44 comments22 favs

Take shelter from the rain inside the Museum of Sex.

On news of your demise

10641064 views44 comments00 favs

The news just now that you are dead

Henny Penny On Why She Crossed the Road

12111211 views44 comments44 favs

Ok, ok, people are forever asking me, so why did I cross the frickin’ road? Dumb-shit me, of course. Consequences waaay unforseen.

A College Town

14141414 views44 comments11 fav

@font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } …

Taking Leave

12191219 views44 comments22 favs

A walled city doesn’t let you out any more easily that it has let you in earlier.

Acclimation

12571257 views44 comments22 favs

Before I grew used to it I would wake to the sound of the Amtrak whistle echoing down along the tracks behind our trailer park and wonder who was hurtling where through the dark night and across this wide Illinois prairie

I Don't Know How the Nights Can Be So Long When Life Is So Short

10601060 views44 comments44 favs

I will always remember that picture of you in your bright blue summer dress, with your arms spread out against a wooden fence in Central Park.

Stop It!

958958 views44 comments44 favs

Don’t shout. Be nice Cheer up. Sit up Straight. Don’t play With your food. Elbows Off the table. Watch Your language. Use Your napkin. Eat the Crust Stop fidgeting Stop scratching Close your mouth When you chew Remember to Clea

Diary of a Lost Girl

29712971 views44 comments33 favs

They were all in love with tortured musicians, 22-year-old geniuses who hanged themselves after making one perfect album. The musicians generally lived in England. It was safer that way.

Mother's Day

11371137 views44 comments22 favs

By lunch: The dryer is an F-5 dervish of mismatched socks, blue jeans and your yellowing college T's, lovingly held onto. For a moment there is a comforting warmth and softness to their smell. In the debris strewn landscape of the living room a carcass

Snapshots

12961296 views44 comments44 favs

On a street-lit night in Jeddah.

Nancy's Brother

14491449 views44 comments33 favs

Nancy's brother, Ronnie would wait until church was out and pull the bench up to the piano play and sing show tunes, even humming them loudly if he didn't remember the lyric. Crooning away — as if he had the lead in a Broadway musical. Well, that was part of it,…

Nine Months on the Picket Line

768768 views44 comments00 favs

It has been more than three decades since I returned to work from a noon union meeting to find myself, along with about twenty others, locked out of the printing plant where we worked.

Route Four

14181418 views44 comments11 fav

The little girl spooned strawberry yogurt into her mouth as a pleasant morning breeze swept across the balcony of the hotel. The girl lifted the cup and stuck her tongue inside to lick the yogurt off the edges. Across the small round table, the girl's mother sat…

How to Forget

16171617 views44 comments11 fav

Refuse to go to the church service, even though you already missed the funeral. Tell his mother something came up. Call his phone over and over, just to hear his voice, until his mother asks you to stop. Make a recording of his voicemail. Delete it an

Redbeard the Communist Pirate

13311331 views44 comments22 favs

True facts about Redbeard the communist pirate.

The 27 Club

927927 views44 comments33 favs

Jimi, Jim, and Janis Kurt and Amy too They died and gone to heaven And fit inside a shoe Room 114’s where they lie Their eyes wide open

When Birds Do Not Fly

12721272 views44 comments44 favs

The last chick in the nest

boardwalk

973973 views44 comments44 favs

coast to coast

Impressionist Modern

13431343 views44 comments33 favs

I'd never seen a dead person before, let alone one that was living just seconds earlier.

Cat People #9: Tales of Manhattan

18561856 views44 comments33 favs

She'd make a great catch in the rain. Because in the rain nothing moves. No cat girl of deep shade eyeliner. No saint of dark corners.

11:11AM Eastern Standard Time:

18711871 views44 comments11 fav

"Make a wish," she whispered.

Pals

13631363 views44 comments33 favs

There was a body in the backseat, and they drove through the highways at night to a late night radio show that played 80’s power ballads. He said: “I am really glad you’re here for me.”

A Body Divided, 1

633633 views44 comments22 favs

"Polio?" people wondered. They asked: "Is that contagious?" Nobody knew. It was 1953. The epidemic raged on. Children in some towns were being made to stay indoors during the polio season for fear that the disease was airborne. It was putting an unnatura

Rejected York Peppermint Pattie Commercial Blurbs

14421442 views44 comments11 fav

When I bite into a York Peppermint Pattie, I get the sensation of being curled in a ball inside a cold, dark cave filled with my darkest, most paralyzing fears.

I heard you were a drinker

892892 views44 comments00 favs

Once we got to my house, Lynda had everything drinkable in the house open and in everybody's hands before I knew it. She tossed down a bottle of my father's beer, then started on a bottle of whiskey that was open. She took a straight mouthful and offe