Most read stories

Truth at a Bonsai Booth

19911991 views99 comments55 favs

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

Take Your Gun to Work Day

19901990 views2929 comments1515 favs

In a rousing show of support for guns and the owners who love them, the Legislature passed and Governor Greg Abbott gleefully signed a law proclaiming April 15 as Take Your Gun to Work Day in Texas.

A Plea for Artists to Be Activists for Women’s Rights: Don’t Explain

19901990 views88 comments55 favs

When I feel the sort of longing that sneaks up on me unawares, the sort held for the wrong kind of person that can make a woman clutch her heart in the night and sullies her blood with unwanted dreams in a thinking person's landscape, I hear, too, the deep…

Europe, 1960

19901990 views2323 comments2222 favs

The painting was on loan from a gallery in Chicago. We stood there connecting the dots.

The Fish, the Fisherman, and the Sea

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My father is remarkably clever. That is, for a rundown, henpecked fisherman. He has caught me again. He has me slung over his back in a rickety lobster trap and I can hear him huffing and the water in him sloshing and though I can't see his face, I imagine it is ruddied…

New Questions of Travel

19901990 views2626 comments1818 favs

Watching water fall in the longest waterfall/ becomes immediately tedious

13 Halloweens

19901990 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…

Thick Rib of the Lamentation Animal

19901990 views55 comments66 favs

This violin of oneself, this rough strum of I, arc of wing over thick rib. This masturbatory chirping like the meat of God clenched in your teeth, an apostrophe giving aloneness possession over the inarticulate, a bridge between chords.

Fatuous Dialogue #1

19901990 views1818 comments1313 favs

—Was it true, what you wrote in that poem? —Pretty true. —What do you mean “pretty true”? Was it true or wasn’t it? —It was as close as you get to truth in poems.

Torn

19891989 views11 comment22 favs

My parents were married for forty five years. “A lifetime,” is how the rabbi at my mother's funeral describes it. The man says it with such a tone of familiarity, of genuine sadness, that one might think he has known and adored my parents all their lives. But…

Self-Portrait of Someone Else (excerpt)

19891989 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

All Fur and Bones

19891989 views00 comments11 fav

I wonder how much time she has left. I think she’s seventeen. I don’t know for sure because she was already grown when I got her from the pound, just before Christmas, years ago this was --back when I had hair and hope.

Headstone III

19891989 views2828 comments2121 favs

My only brother. Frantic flesh clings to bone.

Blink

19881988 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.

Summertime

19881988 views1111 comments77 favs

I am so happy to see winter almost gone

Stay. Sit. Listen.

19881988 views2121 comments99 favs

There is a small church in the south of Italy, with a stained-glass window depicting the sister of John The Baptist.

True Fear

19881988 views44 comments22 favs

Flush, a sputter, and the water level rises, slowly. Flush again.

Gone With The Wildebeest

19871987 views22 comments11 fav

A recent book reveals that nature documentaries are staged. Shocked by such claims we went on location to discover for ourselves the behind-the-scenes manipulations and more. Director: “You'll spot the wildebeest, freeze, and then charge. Okay? And try to bring…

Three Photos

19861986 views33 comments00 favs

The first photo above shows plainly: five children dressed in suits and dresses. There are three girls. Each girl wears a yellow sundress with chiffon ribbons. The boys have been terrorizing them--the girls, not the dresses.

The Caveman Attends the Symphony Without His Club

19861986 views88 comments33 favs

“Would you consider renewing for the next season?” “We’re not interested.” “Can I ask you why?” I considered my reply. I was thinking of mincing my words. The man on the other end of the line seemed, how should I put this, somewhat s

A Country of Husbands

19861986 views1010 comments77 favs

The first husband was young and lovely. He had a little nose and long fingers he used for things like planting begonias in my clay pot. I did not do flowers. So that was nice.

April Haiku

19861986 views2020 comments1010 favs

A sardonic moon/ surveys our plight and cackles.

A Bear Story

19861986 views33 comments33 favs

In the spring, my father would dress for class in a bear costume and chase students around campus.

What's Wrong With Stella by Starlight?

19861986 views1111 comments33 favs

Suzie went on to become an anchorwoman in Los Angeles after college. She had tiny bruises on her feet where she’d shoot heroin since she didn’t want tracks to show on her arms, where they’d ruin the effect of a little black cocktail dress

Elegy For the Old Republic

19861986 views33 comments22 favs

You call the shit in this paper news? ‘Dog Accidentally Shoots Man With His Own Gun, Swedish Man Bursts Into Flames on Train Platform, The Truth About Elvis's Hidden Extraterrestrial Daughter.' Seriously? Enough about Elvis already.

A Taste For Music

19851985 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

Hat, Mouse, Tortoise, Zen

19851985 views1717 comments55 favs

I try to help my pet-mouse by dangling cheese from a piece of string in front of him. Or by making meow sounds. Sometimes, my pet-mouse wins, sometimes the hamster with the great body.

Witness

19851985 views1515 comments99 favs

The violin hung on the wall after that, a witness.

Resolutions

19851985 views33 comments33 favs

Portions of my heart and bones

Like An Endless Rain

19851985 views22 comments11 fav

Fate could have sent me any number of Sergeant-Detectives, but fate sent me one of Boston’s finest, Sergeant-Detective Sheila Magnuson. Aside from being a little undernourished Sheila Magnuson is possibly the world’s most beautiful Sergeant-Detective.