Most read stories

The Brazen Bull

19881988 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.

Elevator Neighbors (from The New Yorker)

19881988 views33 comments44 favs

“Do you think she paints?” “Her face, a little, But don’t you find her kind of bony?”

Class

19871987 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…

Gathering

19871987 views1212 comments88 favs

In the office supply store on Union, Jeremy, the stock boy, shelves tubs of rubber bands. Tubs with an easy-access pop-top and a see-through container. If Hendy saw these tubs, she would think these particular rubber bands resembled anorexic gummy-worms,

The Leg

19871987 views3131 comments1111 favs

They all looked for Vic's leg after the accident.

The Waves

19871987 views77 comments66 favs

...some years later I heard that an old friend jumped off that bridge to her death.

A Body Divided, 5

19861986 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

Fear

19861986 views00 comments00 favs

Vito sat alone on a bench, hunched over, staring at his running shoes. He wasn't having fun. The club wasn't nearly as crowded as usual. There were no outlandishly-dressed or made-up people present. Most in attendance were huddled directly before the band

Brot und Käse

19861986 views55 comments33 favs

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

Things You Can Do, Some Can't Be Done

19861986 views00 comments00 favs

The deep breathing has helped. My heart rate is back down to a normal resting rate somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 to 60 beats per minute, about one solid thump every second like clockwork, a precision I can truly appreciate.

13 Halloweens

19861986 views22 comments22 favs

1. The Walking Heart Attack Man has two outfits. In the summer he dresses in a short sleeve checkered button down shirt and high waisted Bermuda shorts with sandals. In the winter he wears dark pants and loafers with a gray corduroy coat…

If It Isn't One Thing, It's Another

19861986 views1313 comments1313 favs

My friend says there's some kind of bug that bites its mate's head off after they have sex.

another night, another dream

19851985 views11 comment22 favs

She can tell you seven things she doesn’t love about her face.

Mr. Twitchy

19851985 views22 comments11 fav

I used to think the world was fucked and it was up to me and me alone to see it unfucked. That's really what I used to think, but I've been trying to work on that. It's not a particularly flattering characteristic I have. I'm trying to be more positive.

Opening Line

19851985 views44 comments33 favs

I cannot read one more award winning novel by a female Asian author about the atrocities committed against their childhood, she thought. Then she sat down with her trusty yellow pad and Papermate fineline to write the next lyrical story of a female Asian writer and the…

Fragment

19851985 views2424 comments1313 favs

see the man

Ornamental Onion

19851985 views77 comments33 favs

i imagined myself & i was phlox saxifrage pompom ranunculus poppy anemone ornamental onion rattlesnake red ribbon nerine & i loved the painted tongue & i wore the rattlesnake

The Lost Boys

19851985 views2121 comments1919 favs

Every day hurts, just a little, but not enough

The Lateness of the Night Lies Dreaming

19851985 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

A Blow to the Possible

19851985 views00 comments00 favs

Tombstones are only granite symbols of a man’s life, Gus thought as he changed lanes. Children, they were the ultimate epitaph.

patti, did art get us?

19851985 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

Miss Edna's Lace

19841984 views22 comments00 favs

When Elvis died, I felt so empty that I headed straight for Jimmy Choo's, but quietly, with the half-veil of my pillbox hat draped low over my face. I didn't want to draw attention to my vintage Dior mourning outfit, since I normally wear pants, even here. The voices…

Breathless

19841984 views1616 comments1111 favs

I sit down next to a youngster on the couch. “Would you like to see?” she asks. “See what?” I reply....

Suppose, I ask my friend

19841984 views11 comment11 fav

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

'Bout Apples

19841984 views11 comment22 favs

Sawyer walked toward the lone house with the sentinel trees. Behind him there were no tracks in the snow.

My Bed Loves Me

19841984 views1212 comments77 favs

Above-board, we sail

Josephine Skinny Jeans: Chapter 2

19841984 views00 comments00 favs

Sometimes I have really violent dreams where I smash Libby’s face in with a liquor bottle, a brick, a mounted boar’s head... really whatever my brain makes available to me. I always wake up satisfied.

DRIP

19831983 views2020 comments1111 favs

...you lick you ice cream, little pink tongue like a cat's, flick, flick... lick fast, girl, the heat's gonna melt it...

21stC irl (easy action) party

19831983 views2121 comments1313 favs

Nobody took pics.

Arcana Magi Memorial Vol.2 - c.4

19831983 views00 comments00 favs

Madam Mayweather heard the laughter stop and the copy of Jean-Pierre burst into smoke. Her silence was intense. Nobody in the auditorium knew what to expect. No one dared to say a single word.