Most discussed stories

the sleep of rain

990990 views33 comments22 favs

Soon you too will lie down with the sleep of rain, telling them a thing or two, grown old by having lived through your youth, that is all. Lying from the side of your mouth so often that you take up lying on your side, to try getting an eyeful of the of

She Called My Poem Nice

14021402 views33 comments22 favs

“There is no future in art, you will not change lives with flowery words. Please don’t rock the boat”

This Man Waited on Me at Peet's Coffee

694694 views33 comments11 fav

Way stronger than Starbucks turned out to be.

Xs and Os

13851385 views33 comments22 favs

Momma pointed out our paintings on the walls, the signs we had learned, but when Daddy saw our friends, their wheelchairs, braces on their legs, he left...

"Not like a duck"

10651065 views33 comments11 fav

with its head cut off

Toweka: The Vanishing Elephant

15491549 views33 comments22 favs

The elephant kept popping in and out of the savannah--which is to say, in and out of existence. It was an African bush elephant, which made this trick even more impressive.

The Unsocialists

858858 views33 comments33 favs

and we’ll have dinner with the head of the Swollen Artists Club and I’ll keep my mouth tied shut with my own tongue

I'm Drinking This Cup Of Coffee (A.K.A.) I've Never Smoked A Joint

15761576 views33 comments33 favs

I thought about how chocolate or an hour massage, can almost trump sex. Then, I bought a chocolate bar and ate it all, without consulting the serving size. It was dark chocolate, 82%, worth it in the short term--- mmmm. I thought about getting stoned.

Karmic Rip Cord

957957 views33 comments22 favs

For the kid in me who fell head over heels all the way down the stars, I wonder where you are now. Slack is harder to cut than you might think, I have learned. And assigning the middle finger its true purpose keeps me pretty bus

None But The Righteous

16121612 views33 comments33 favs

Susan was twenty-four when it happened again, but she had neither the patience nor the attachment to see it through.

Stillness

15391539 views33 comments33 favs

You were sitting on dark leather meringue, wearing slit ivy, epilated thighs sliding through, roots showing beneath your anaemic skin, fighting with the pale bluegreen of your veins. Quills extended from your left hand, bent about 10.2 degrees or so.

the genes of Edouard Manet

11871187 views33 comments33 favs

was entering into a new phase of its existence, a peculiar paradigm of the wider world where, presaged by science, economic and political ideologies were conspiring to displace the old verities of religion and aesthetics, but where…

Kiss & make up

17881788 views33 comments22 favs

“You wanna fight.” And I say yes. And he says – “First, we gotta make out.”

a nice girl is like powder

15421542 views33 comments33 favs

I remember mad strong words out of a teenager, fresh from the shower without a blouse: First! He will be my age, period! He will be the first to walk me to my room as my fear crashes to earth, final, considered. And I will be the first to milk the w

This Is How Far It Is

11111111 views33 comments33 favs

How long has this been going on? the admitting nurse asks.

Papa's Parrot

17641764 views33 comments22 favs

He wasn’t there for the beginning or the end. In the beginning, he was still a wild thing. Nothing more than a voice in the chorus of the Dark Continent, back when it was a thing of terrible beauty and attracted people like the old man; people who breathe

Where There Be Monsters

11061106 views33 comments33 favs

“C'mon Billy, don't be s-s-s-s-scared.' said the voice coming from under the bed. Billy looked over the side and saw a pale white, bony right hand with it's forefinger beckoning him protruding out from below. The nails were yellowed and cracked. And long. Very, very…

A Worthy Caws

851851 views33 comments33 favs

It started with crows. I'd walk the switchback trail to the top of the park with its outlook of the city and if I didn't see any crows I'd whistle and they'd come swarming from everywhere. I'd give the peanuts a toss and the crows would caw their heads off and peck at…

Adrift

18651865 views33 comments11 fav

Picking up a perfect stranger—perfect meaning dead, in this case—and shaping him into the man you’d want him to be is not so easy.

A Memoir

14111411 views33 comments00 favs

…she smelled of sunflowers.

Ballad

12331233 views33 comments22 favs

Hi de ho, and hey, hey, hey; The farmer's daughter is made of hay. I went to touch her but she blew away, And noo ma hert is nae langer gay. Hi de hoo, and how do you do? The farmer's wife has a cold up her flue, And takes me away…

Knock Knock

11001100 views33 comments22 favs

The bad moods crash the door down like an overzealous SWAT team and wreck the furniture. The good moods arrive unannounced.

Poetry & Poets

10491049 views33 comments11 fav

“I’ve read your blog recently,” my friend told me over waffles and cold potato salad at 10PM, “and something strange is going on in there.”

Sunday, Brick Lane

11051105 views33 comments22 favs

Held tight during the week, clouds now cast off their burden, flinging down a drag-net of sleet.

The Oral Tradition

11761176 views33 comments33 favs

No preview available due to the brevity of the piece. In fact, this comment itself is longer than the piece.

Resolutions

18091809 views33 comments33 favs

Portions of my heart and bones

The Everyday Juggernaut

14431443 views33 comments11 fav

I will go to work in the morning and no one will stop me. I wish someone would stop me. I don’t know if my car will start in this cold. But if it does (it always does), I am going to drive to work.

The Tourists at the Museum

12031203 views33 comments22 favs

For the camera she smiles otherwise not and only when she is standing beside him But for the camera? for the crowd for posterity yes For their children for the future? yes, again yes a thousand times until her face be

New/Old

12231223 views33 comments11 fav

With spring rain And greening buds

My Resolutions for YOU In 2014

11661166 views33 comments22 favs

Every year I make New Year's resolutions and every year I break them. So this year, I'm trying something different -- resolutions for other people. Hey world -- here are the changes I'd like to see YOU make in 2014(1) Cell phone owners: No more blathering on your cell in…