Most read stories

I've Got a Secret

19831983 views1818 comments1212 favs

There's a man sitting in my room holding a jar of my ashes. That's what he claims.

Hobos: Paris vs. San Francisco

19831983 views77 comments22 favs

French pee runs stronger, less minty. In France the world' a pissoir.

Monster Truck

19831983 views33 comments33 favs

In another lifetime the loft had been a shoe factory and I joked how in the dark of night I could hear the ghosts of lost soles speaking in tongues. There was the rolling of eyes, and when I repeated the joke to my therapist, who was actually sitting acr

Big C and Lil Puppet

19831983 views44 comments11 fav

At that time I was meeting Jacob at 3:30 each afternoon in Joan of Arc Park so we could walk dogs together. This was our job.

There's a Panther in my Poodle

19831983 views66 comments55 favs

There are glasses in the sinkfrom the water that I drink.And the books in my li-braryare not dumb and ordinary.There's a doggie at my door;did I go to the pet store?There's a puppy on my couch-ywho was happy, now she's grouchy.Was a writer, now an authoror an otter; no, an…

You've Done Good

19831983 views11 comment11 fav

For a fleeting moment, eyes seemed to clear and the man spoke as if he were coming out of the pea soup fog that formed over the lake on spring mornings.

As Pleat

19821982 views1010 comments66 favs

I turn up the music and slip into drone, rock it like a tunnel in canary. When that does not erase his face, I cup my breast with one hand and let my hair fall.

lament of Liu Ch'e . . . while elsewhere--

19821982 views77 comments66 favs

in her silk sleeves is silence sheathed.

Lesson 38

19821982 views1414 comments33 favs

You have a house (plural, as in Spain)

Three: A Heavenly Mansion

19821982 views33 comments33 favs

She went up first, I followed, a respectful three paces behind. Now, I know what you’re thinking: I was perfectly placed to steal a quick, if innocent, glance, and she would never see. The house is a center hall colonial, and there are no mirrors on the s

The Tombwatcher's Tale

19821982 views22 comments11 fav

My name is Lu-chen Wyatt, and I have watched this tomb for seven years with undying loyalty. Tomorrow I am going away, and I wish to set down the story of my leaving and to say goodbye to Set-Yi, whose burial place has been my home for so long.

Refugees

19821982 views88 comments22 favs

Four in the morning. I was awake because I'm always awake. There were little fog-halos around the streetlights.

When I'm Not Here

19821982 views22 comments00 favs

She’ll get a dog a Weimaraner I know She’ll call him Alfie after her first two dogs He’ll try to get up on the bed She’ll say, Alfie, no, no But in the night she will let him so as not to be lonely

five discards or less

19821982 views66 comments55 favs

weep or go stark mad your amanuensic fool will bury your words

A Broken Ankle, Canasta, and a Weirdly Sexy Jesus Sighting

19821982 views1010 comments88 favs

nothing can stop a group of genteel Southern women from a card game, and divine intervention makes one's participation in such an event quite worthwhile

The Tree

19821982 views1212 comments88 favs

No fuckin' way, Maude. Excuse me, but you know I can't stand that bag of wind. No way.

Migratory Mistakes

19821982 views00 comments00 favs

Unadorned tragedies pinpoint the worst angles of the road; simple crosses or bouquets line boulders painted with car crash smoke or skid marks that tiptoe to the edge of cliffs and then, apparently, leap.

Yakkety-Yak

19821982 views33 comments33 favs

Last night, the station played me a dream of sexual promiscuity that included -- but was not limited to -- imaginative acts involving....

Golgotha

19821982 views22 comments00 favs

They were starting to get winded. The boy, his father and his little brother were hiking up a hill, cutting a diagonal path through hay-colored grass towards an outcrop of craggy boulders below the hill's summit.

The Violinist

19821982 views1313 comments1111 favs

Max leads the parade up the hill. He is sawing on his violin, wearing nothing but a raincoat.

I'm Dying! And I Didn't Make The Bed!

19821982 views1111 comments99 favs

Five years ago, on January 15, 2009, Flight 1549 took off for Charlotte, North Carolina and, 3 minutes later, made an emergency landing in the Hudson River, with no serious harm to anyone but the geese who caused the problem. (They were liquefied into something…

The Sky-What Limit?

19821982 views00 comments00 favs

Lighter-than-air flight was back. The skies of the coast were alight with colorful balloons, dirigibles, and zeppelins tethered to their docking towers along the beach, the huge aircraft bobbing in the breeze up and down the coast for miles,…

The Urine Pearls

19811981 views55 comments00 favs

“No, dad, I've never seen urine colored pearls.”

Purple IV

19811981 views1313 comments77 favs

Purple not rain! I guess Prince left. It is said that Prince owned the aquifer under Jordan, Minnesota, and that he sold it but to whom? And moved to Canada—

The Little Dog from Outer Space

19811981 views1111 comments88 favs

I looked at her, shook my head and tried to smile. She smiled back, beaming a radiance that pushed away the chill.

The Book Mind

19811981 views66 comments66 favs

The book mind, just like its namesake the book, is capable of movement only after its assembly: otherwise, it boasts no moving parts.

Matisse, in the Jardin des Tuileries, 1904

19811981 views77 comments66 favs

The World's Worst Mime stood there next to the iron carousel, portraying something, and the crowd understood none of it, except that whatever thing he was trying to portray was not being portrayed well at all.

You are beautiful just the way you are

19811981 views66 comments66 favs

There were avocados splayed across menus like 1950′s pinup girls–all thigh and curve. Avocados in California omelets. Avocados split and diced, sprayed with lime, slapped on bagels, served with tomato.

If I Was A Bum

19811981 views33 comments00 favs

If I was a bum I’d risk everything for a drink or a smoke I would beg and curse and steal if I was a bum If I was a bum I would cuss out the Pope I would not vote for anyone because I would know truly they’d be telling gross lies

Stumptown Mary

19801980 views22 comments11 fav

so one time the Holy Ghost come down to Stumptown