Most discussed stories

The barbarian at the gate, a work in progress

25642564 views44 comments22 favs

I may even invite the little man, who lives in the closet, to come out and visit me: Come over here, pleasure me, let me sit on your pink latex face.

Ask the Language Monitor

12201220 views44 comments11 fav

A woman I work with is always going on about her daughter is an expert water-skier and has a collection of antique thimbles and makes prize-winning congo bars.

Excelsior - A Poem in 9 Parts (post 3 of 5)

13411341 views44 comments11 fav

IV. From Hoover Dam The intent of passive presence wreathes an endless ring, Invisible, beyond all thoughts and change to sickness. This hour beats sibylline as vacancy, breathing Through mouths that do not taste their nothingness. I do not know where you are;…

Discards

11041104 views44 comments44 favs

Church-lady dresses with matching jackets

My Life as a Part-Time Rapist, Full- Time Comedian

24532453 views44 comments33 favs

The rapist was caught on December 23rd, the day before Christmas Eve. Everyone in town was surprised to learn he had a wife and two children; a son and a daughter, the same age, and a yellow Labrador retriever.

Shadow Man

19961996 views44 comments33 favs

Words are not like bricks. The neighborhood flowers from within the rituals that enframe the drinking of a macchiato in a café. Now it hovers over the page.

Sometimes everything is depthless.

12051205 views44 comments11 fav

There is some debate about what kind of twins they are. It’s a fissure between aesthetics and science.

Marilyn in Ottawa

15131513 views44 comments22 favs

I looked away. Why embarrass the Ottawa woman? Why make her uncomfortable? The polite thing is to move on, forget about it. Stare at the sidewalk not yet wet but becoming wet. Be Canadian.

The Comedian

16821682 views44 comments44 favs

Sitting near her desk, like a dunce cap, red

Close/Far

13621362 views44 comments66 favs

If you were glassI'd fog you up With my breathI'd leave messagesPictographsIn fingerprints I'd press in closeSo would youAnd so we'd danceBut you are glassAn inch of depthTo catch my breath

Fruits of Passion

18011801 views44 comments00 favs

Lifting a pear wedge to my lips, I hesitate and dip it into my bourbon instead. I notice a tiny sphere of liquid, suspended, glistening with the flame of the candle. The sweet, subtle scent tantalizes my senses. Careless, sticky fingers bring movement.…

Where in daytime nothing is

11291129 views44 comments00 favs

I had imagined what it must be like / out there in the middle place

The Funeral

14841484 views44 comments00 favs

Over the years, Morgana had grown. She was so much more than what Xavier remembered. So much different. She had an astute, almost shrewd air about her. She didn't seem nearly as fragile as he had left her. No, she had an eye out for herself now.…

on the shore on the shore

14551455 views44 comments00 favs

I await, here at Sandymount Strand / There's a stony bed and moistened sand / Couples dance away into futurity / With their dogs upon the shore

Clockwork and Sex Appeal

12381238 views44 comments33 favs

And her life runs like clockwork. And the kids wouldn’t get to school without her, and the paychecks wouldn’t arrive and the taxes wouldn’t get paid. And she listens to religion and country and God telling her how to run her life, what to do and when. B

The Man Inside

11971197 views44 comments44 favs

...her facial twitches, gasps and whines, her moments of trapped silence.

Illinois Route 3

14471447 views44 comments22 favs

If this road could answer I would ask her what it is like to follow the path of the rippleshimmery river for too many miles through the slowly ghosting towns and the corncovered landscapes of the dying Midwest

Fundamentals

12951295 views44 comments11 fav

You can have two threes, or three twos. I hear the beat both ways. It goes back and forth in my head, like magic, transforming from one to the other and back again. And I am learning the basics of music theory, and painting geometric shapes with primary colors. I am…

My Search for The First Snowman

52325232 views44 comments44 favs

This was my quest for over 6 years. It would deplete my bank account, test my marriage and get me in with a lot cool celebrities.

Event Particle 12

15471547 views44 comments33 favs

The snow buzzes in the Ritalin air beneath Dairy Queen clouds

The Young Hate the Old

11751175 views44 comments33 favs

The old hate the young. Robe exposed monks do not Hate mosquitoes. It is one. It is one hand. It is on. Mountains don't hate sky. The rich hate the poor. The poor hate the rich. The parade of scholars hate the …

Skype's Not for Losers. Really.

18871887 views44 comments11 fav

™¶¢£ÆëáçÑøí¥®>©≈∞⅜∏√™¶¢£ÆëáçÑøí¥®>©≈∞⅜∏√™¶¢£ÆëáçÑøí¥®>©≈∞⅜∏√™¶¢£ÆëáçÑøí¥®>©≈∞⅜∏√™¶¢£ÆëáçÑøí¥®>©≈∞⅜∏√™¶¢£ÆëáçÑøí¥®>©≈∞⅜∏√™¶¢£ÆëáçÑøí¥®>©≈∞⅜∏√™¶¢£ÆëáçÑøí¥®>©≈∞⅜∏√™¶¢£ÆëáçÑøí¥®>©≈∞⅜∏√™¶¢£ÆëáçÑøí¥®>©≈∞⅜∏√™¶¢£ÆëáçÑøí¥®>©≈∞⅜∏√™¶¢£ÆëáçÑøí¥®>©≈∞⅜∏√™¶¢£ÆëáçÑøí¥®

Inner Charlie

23322332 views44 comments44 favs

When Charlie woke up he couldn’t find his inner Charlie.

Beside the Swing Set

10761076 views44 comments00 favs

Julie had a thousand freckles the color of mud.

Billie Holiday Visits Her Song

18371837 views44 comments44 favs

Why you keep a razor blade in your stocking?

Surprise!

950950 views44 comments22 favs

We were fleeing hurricane Katrina. We stopped somewhere in Texas at a roadside diner, but found a sign that said it was closed. We were so hungry. All of a sudden as we sat there in our car, the shop's owner knocked on the window and asked what he could g

My Alice

13431343 views44 comments44 favs

My story begins where so many have ended, strapped fast to a cold table, just moments from a lobotomy needle and anything resembling the man that I am.

Strength

937937 views44 comments44 favs

.

Begonia {part one}

18751875 views44 comments11 fav

The sun was so upset that immediately he pulled his blanket over his face and cried out of worry. His blanket, of course was made of clouds and his tears made up the rain. The sun was very right to be frightened, as were the flowers to wither, for the Kin

Flashback

12201220 views44 comments22 favs

Most of the deer around here have a higher IQ than the hunters.