Most read stories

Capture This Thing

20182018 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.

The Party

20172017 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 …

Boredom & Ennui

20172017 views00 comments00 favs

I had a weird feeling I had just validated his behavior — provided another tile in the mosaic of his ego and self-esteem — by doing nothing more than entering this hall of mirrors, and reflecting.

Self-Portrait of Someone Else (excerpt)

20172017 views77 comments33 favs

Recently I think I became someone else. When the alarm clock rings in the morning, it sounds sharper than usual; getting up, my feet don't seem to quite touch the floor; looking into my bathroom mirror, my face seems to be melting, sliding, my eyes dri

Brot und Käse

20172017 views55 comments33 favs

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

More Abandoned Sentences

20172017 views2323 comments77 favs

By morning it was over. I crawled farther out onto the ledge. The three year old was screaming like Donald Duck. Trains ran into the night. Several pigs entered the open window.

Noah's Ark, NYC

20172017 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

Repatriation

20172017 views1717 comments1111 favs

When he woke he carried the body of a cat instead of a man. Next to him his cat dreamed it had a human body.

Major Chaos

20172017 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

Henry and the Hungry Hamper

20162016 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…

Winter Hawk Jack

20162016 views22 comments11 fav

Jack, man in black, sporting manicured talons, his smile an iced knife.

The Lateness of the Night Lies Dreaming

20162016 views66 comments33 favs

Your finger quivers as it writes Upon me words in water, Words I cannot read nor drink But feel them as you drink Them with your tongue

The Brazen Bull

20162016 views99 comments44 favs

History is replete with brutally imaginative techniques of torture and execution, but I am the only death machine that doubles as a musical instrument.

An Old Sweet Song

20162016 views33 comments22 favs

Rob thought he might even make it. He'd stopped off south of Seattle, in Kent, and filled up the tank and went back in the can and topped off again. He got back on the road, to all appearances blase, blase. The montages were muted, at least for…

patti, did art get us?

20162016 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

A Taste For Music

20152015 views22 comments00 favs

“Nothing we have here can stop them,” the Lumi said, “We were hoping there might be something in your world we might try.” “Even if we had something, how would I get it to you? ”We are working on that, in the meantime, will you help us?” I

Dreams-in-progress

20152015 views1313 comments77 favs

A team of reggae journalists played and an unknown man came after work for me in a kilt.

Suppose, I ask my friend

20152015 views11 comment11 fav

nothing has ever happened in this or that or any other or maybe too damn many parallel universes. . . .

The Messenger

20152015 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

20152015 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

The First Soliloquy of the Interior Zombie

20152015 views99 comments66 favs

But do come close enough for me to hear.

21stC irl (easy action) party

20142014 views2121 comments1313 favs

Nobody took pics.

Ten years later

20142014 views55 comments44 favs

Are you asleep? He says. Wake up.

Zen and the Art of Enjoying the Last Laugh

20142014 views66 comments55 favs

What doesn't kill you gives you great material.

Hobo's Pastor

20142014 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.

Freeway Deaths Attributed to Talk Radio

20142014 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,

Dog Days

20132013 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.

Worry

20132013 views1717 comments99 favs

I turned on the television last night, and one of the networks had a segment about a girl with no nose.

A Body Divided, 5

20132013 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

'The Good Life' Not by Bud Smith

20132013 views1111 comments77 favs

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