Most read stories

The Great San Francisco Poetry Wars, 6

16511651 views55 comments00 favs

When I got word from Mary Jo, she warned me that Mitchell Parkman was out looking for me with a butcher knife. I knew immediately what I had to do. I packed up my things and sold the Pepsi van and moved up to a room on Regent Street in Berkeley, all the w

Ojibwe

16511651 views00 comments00 favs

"Did I have a choice? Could I just open my eyes, did I have to ‘see’ as he was telling me now I could? I decided to go for it. What did I have to lose? This was all a dream, too much driving to get here, too much reunion, too much food, too much beer. Or

Carpe Diem

16511651 views66 comments44 favs

And as you try to read, he appears. No, not in front of you, but somewhere just behind your eyes. You hear the sound at the end of an argument, just before the kiss; you see a shirt fall to the ground in late summer; you watch him read as his mouth

Riddle 44 from the Exeter Book: The Key

16511651 views11 comment22 favs

Curiously made thing

Here I Am

16501650 views88 comments66 favs

Here I am in the city where we walked side by side, you had driven a great distance and lost your way somewhere where exits left the highway from both directions and unpredictably.

Encore

16501650 views77 comments44 favs

...something in her raw vulnerability and daring beauty drove these men wild...

Good & Plenty

16501650 views00 comments00 favs

From across the crowded bar, past the be-suited lobbyists and in between the plates of fried calamari and glasses of cabernet being hustled to and fro by the Salvadoran waiters, Travis could see that John had changed. Not much, but enough to be noticeable. A little grey…

Death, looking over the poet's shoulder, whispers...

16501650 views1414 comments99 favs

Pre-mortem

The Insured

16501650 views11 comment11 fav

Before the bills, before the fighting, before the need to blame something, there was a moment blown empty in the span of one doctor’s breath, a moment where bar nights and weekend benders had no meaning, a moment where the future was as blank as the bac

Alternate Timelines

16501650 views00 comments00 favs

Physicists say that a tremendous amount of energy has to be generated in order to rip through space-time, to jump to another place, and at this time, we're incapable of doing it. I have to disagree. They've never met my brain. I fear it's going to kill me

Arcana Magi Behind the Scenes: The Rule of Mana Ver 2.0

16501650 views00 comments00 favs

A Nonfiction behind the scenes look at how Mana works in the world of Arcana Magi.

Now and Then

16501650 views1919 comments44 favs

We wore cowboy hats and jeans in the pictures. They both came off once his camera disappeared.

Curb Appeal

16501650 views33 comments22 favs

He kept the lawn mowed at the perfect height. He mowed it twice a week to one inch. Some weeks he mowed it a third time for good measure.

Last Night, I Had a Beer with God

16501650 views11 comment00 favs

"So" he started, which troubled me enough to turn back around and make such focused eye contact that I did not even notice his glass was again full, "you wanted to talk?"

Before the Dance

16491649 views33 comments22 favs

A woman walked in from the kitchen. She sat next to him as he poured what was left in the whiskey bottle into each glass. “They could’ve given us more time to make a payment,” he said.

Aforementioned

16491649 views22 comments22 favs

I flung the basketball at the hoop and Cooper shagged the ball. He was the luckiest bastard I knew. ...

Willy Takes the Night Train to Heaven

16491649 views22 comments00 favs

a store called ROCKING FROCKS. In its window was a black tee shirt that said in big white letters, I'M NOT A SLUT, I'M WITH THE BAND.

Table for one

16491649 views00 comments00 favs

Black tagliatelle with squid and funghi porcini. He didn't understand why they called it a special, it had been in the menu since day one they had opened.

Resurrection - A Sonnet (for Valentine's Day Massacre challenge)

16491649 views1111 comments44 favs

Mounds of earth and grassless ground

A Mess

16491649 views00 comments11 fav

A.K.AAmputated narratives of the not yet come emancipatory orderModesty would be forestalled (left aside) in the case of the title "The Mess...."But who can shoulder the visceral (cough) burden of what is to come?" - The God of Trifling Grammatical…

Strange Fruit of Unrewarded Labor

16491649 views2626 comments1616 favs

Poets are more like Jesus,/ suffering the cross

Overheard While Buying Tires in Willits

16491649 views66 comments33 favs

She breezes through the door, cellphone to ear, with the confidence of the affluent. Can you look at my left rear tire, the dashboard indicator says it's low. Back to her phone, Oh, Marsha, hi, how are you, you gorgeous WOMAN, you!? Hey, I'm on my way to…

77 Words About Saturday

16491649 views55 comments33 favs

Another Saturday in April. Another set of scars.

That Pill

16491649 views99 comments66 favs

It’s good to have some, Extra weight - Something they can Grab on to, In the sheets, When it’s late-

Eve

16491649 views77 comments77 favs

When God blessed creation, a ewe gave birth to Adam. When he cursed Satan, Eve hatched from a crocodile's egg.——In naming the animals, Adam marked them for death. His own name was a slow fire. Eve's was an inferno.——In the shelter of the Tree of…

Cymbals

16491649 views00 comments00 favs

On stage, students from the junior college join children from the community to speak and sing in American-French accents. They are timid, heart-broken, in love, rebellious, faithful, resigned to their fates—and all in the matter of a few short hours.

take

16491649 views55 comments44 favs

THERE'D been mutterings on the shareholders' board about a dodgy deal shoved through. In the rush after the towers' thing to get out relevant stock an executive producer had signed off on some film school kid for five big ones to shoot a…

Lending Books

16481648 views1414 comments99 favs

In the late 60’s, I lived on West 71st street in Manhattan and borrowed books from a store.

IT CAN, IT CAN, IT CAN

16481648 views44 comments44 favs

A man jumped off the High Level Bridge this morning.

The Celebrity

16481648 views22 comments00 favs

I love reading about myself. There's nothing more gratifying than seeing my name in the paper, knowing so many people are interested in who I am and what I do.