Most read stories

Brot und Käse

20282028 views55 comments33 favs

I hoped I did not look as panicked as I tried not to feel.

Ezra Stoller

20282028 views1818 comments1616 favs

captured by his lens and plates/ before humidity and hydrocarbons/ smudge the crisp clean lines

Hometown News: The Ballad of Ray and Rose

20282028 views00 comments00 favs

There’s an old journalism adage, usually uttered by editors who haven’t had their butts out of a comfy leather newsroom chair in years, which goes: “You know… the news just doesn’t walk in the door.” ... But sometimes, it does.

Truth at a Bonsai Booth

20282028 views99 comments55 favs

I envisioned bound feet of ancient Asian women who wore embroidered slippers that hid grotesque disfigurements.

SantaBot, Can You Hear Me?

20282028 views88 comments44 favs

Mimi: Santa, I am so down with taking a number, but I really can't have you reading that particular story. Santa: Let me be the judge of that. I am Santa. I give presents to kids.

Luminous Nights

20282028 views44 comments33 favs

A great doubt had shut out the light inside us, but each of us called for our lover at the end, and she was generous. Carrying us along inside her over vast distances, chilling our soul with sudden terrible flashes of light.

Autumn

20272027 views1717 comments1010 favs

The leaves are telegrams sent from the branches to the wind, saying, “it's over stop don't send kisses stop forget me.”

Significant Things

20272027 views00 comments00 favs

“This is a Kneeling Bus.” They’re all kneeling buses, why do they even have to say that? Almost every person gets off in the front now when it says it even says right on the bus to please move to the back and exit from the rear side doors. I hate having t

Capture This Thing

20272027 views99 comments44 favs

Take it from inside you and draw it out. Do it before it decides you are not what you seem to be and, as a result, holds you up by the thumbs.

patti, did art get us?

20272027 views1111 comments88 favs

often as i lie awake i wonder are you awake too?/ we never had any children, he said ruefully/ that summer i cried so much that robert called me soakie/ robert, dying: creating silence

Splinter Off

20262026 views1010 comments44 favs

When we lived in the attic we were make-believe.

The Party

20252025 views33 comments33 favs

Mike poured vermouth over his Campari and ice. “Gotta say, you have the most amazing view up here.” “Thanks. It's great when I'm washing dishes.” “Yeah, and the view in your front room isn't bad either. This cocktail …

Daniel in a Den of Liberalism

20252025 views00 comments00 favs

He had forgotten what the culture was like in certain parts of the city. At the lower end of Second Avenue, there lived an amalgam rare anywhere in the world, save other pockets of Manhattan. Punks, hippies, gays, the homeless, and artists of all strip

A Body Divided, 5

20252025 views00 comments00 favs

Physical therapy was on the agenda every morning, first thing. A nurse would come to my room from the basement floor where they did physical therapy. She'd wrap me in a blanket and put me into a wheelchair, even though it was obvious I didn't need one to

Noah's Ark, NYC

20252025 views44 comments22 favs

Two by two they come walking down 7th Ave girl with girl boy and girl boy and boy two pigeons strolling side by side two robins two crows walking stiffly like two pieces of anthracite coal two spiders two dogs sniffing each oth

The Sky is Simply White

20252025 views1414 comments88 favs

The rain is no terrible epitaph

Henry and the Hungry Hamper

20252025 views33 comments00 favs

  Henry's had a messy day. He splashed, he jumped, he rolled and played. He wrote in books, dressed up the dog, And on the wall he drew a frog. He's wearing dinner, seconds too, And for dessert some fruity goo. It's come to live on…

Zen and the Art of Enjoying the Last Laugh

20252025 views66 comments55 favs

What doesn't kill you gives you great material.

Heart vs. Head

20242024 views00 comments00 favs

Where was it? Tino wondered, craning his neck, plastic bag in hand. He would have sworn there was a Barnes & Noble along this stretch. Had it closed since his mother had last been in the hospital two years ago?

Blink

20242024 views44 comments22 favs

He stands straighter and walks toward the phone in the back, near the bathrooms. His wet sock slaps loudly against the tile floor. The buzz of conversation dims to whispers, barely audible above the roar of the espresso machine.

'The Good Life' Not by Bud Smith

20242024 views1111 comments77 favs

I'm trying to read a Poetry in Motion poem on there wall of a crowded electric train

The Pixie

20242024 views1111 comments77 favs

On the bank of the stream, we take off our clothes and dash into the water.

Major Chaos

20242024 views1717 comments66 favs

Major Chaos came here one of those hot days. I was washing the floor, wearing old clothes, when he knocked on my door. Since I don’t have many visits, I let him in. At first, he seemed like a soldier, but upon reflection I realized he was a big green fr

The Messenger

20242024 views77 comments11 fav

Sophie didn't stop for lunch when she worked. She showed up first in the morning and worked through until the last package was delivered. She pedaled from building to building and walked quickly, at just shy…

The Marriott Hotel, Downtown Brooklyn

20242024 views77 comments44 favs

There was a time when she could quell the loathing that Fred inspired in her. She could force it down. Back then, for instance, when they’d been in counseling, the ball of hatred had only been a little, overripe orange - squishy and occasionally mushed

Freeway Deaths Attributed to Talk Radio

20242024 views66 comments00 favs

"I was just coming home from work listening to Consumer Dave," said Murrietta resident Mick Baylor, through his attorney, "when my eyelids started getting droopy. And he was just talking about how Circuit City was going out of business and I was. . .well,

Potsdamer Strasse

20232023 views33 comments33 favs

She stared unbreakingly, confident, knowing; and talked so close to my face I felt cornered. But her voice was something, low and smooth.

Dog Days

20232023 views3636 comments1616 favs

A forgotten sprinkler is going in a neglected flower garden, water overflowing the bent wood borders and flooding the ground on either side.

Class

20232023 views55 comments11 fav

Class (appears in my book Breaking it Down; no journal publication) When your neighbor James Frehley cusses you out for hanging a block and tackle from the silver maple in your front lawn, begin to pull the engine from your Galaxie anyway, smile and nod…

Hobo's Pastor

20232023 views1616 comments88 favs

The three of us traveled seven hours that day and Al traveled as far in the service of finding the right tool for his writing.