Most read stories

Framed

15841584 views1818 comments1111 favs

We can apprehend beauty only/ by framing it with the photographic/ paper’s edge or the novel’s margins/ and bookends.

The Clairvoyant Dwarf, The Jester, and the Tame Elk of Prague

15841584 views99 comments88 favs

All were part of the household of Court Astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) who lost his nose in a duel as a student and went through life thereafter wearing a gold prosthetic one instead and who met and fell in love with a commoner who bore him eigh

Dark Site

15841584 views22 comments00 favs

Though some days... I feel as though I'm nothing more than the ultimate hedged-bet should the offender be living out his last days on earth, holding my arm as we both feel our way through the long dark corridors of tragedy.

Key West with Poo and Company

15841584 views00 comments00 favs

Excerpt from Flamingo …

The Case of the Phantom Paperclip

15831583 views33 comments55 favs

I was sitting on the steps in the entryway to our apartment building taking off my running shoes when I spotted a paperclip on the floor. I assumed it had fallen from the mail that my wife had just taken from our mailbox. Once my shoes were removed, I went down to pick…

Low Clouds

15831583 views55 comments22 favs

We lay in what we have made, minute fleshy bullets in the target we have made.

Mortality

15831583 views1717 comments1010 favs

The list of things to live for/ shortens with age. The list of regrets/ lengthens.

Considering a Career

15831583 views1515 comments88 favs

Mostly, though, reiteration of the old/ in an idiosyncrasy that strives/ to become fresh and fails

The Dark

15831583 views66 comments44 favs

Outlined against the thinly layered darkness of the room, there is a silhouette of a small boy with his feet pulled up to the chin, failing to hold its own against the thousand stares from the deep violating the stillness of his room, their long familiarity with the…

Springtime

15831583 views99 comments88 favs

Bert also said that somebody else at the meeting was complaining about his high blood pressure, and Bert repeated what Hank had said, that he was glad to have any blood pressure at all.

What is your favorite body part?

15831583 views66 comments11 fav

Hideki likes the uncomfortable face one makes when trying to "break wind" after eating too many dried potatoes.

MY WAR

15831583 views1111 comments33 favs

In May of 1982, my daughter and I planned a trip…

Invisible Grime

15831583 views1010 comments77 favs

Most everything is white because white means clean and hospitals are supposed to be clean. They wouldn’t let me leave.

Mobile

15831583 views77 comments77 favs

They stand together in the doorway looking at the crib.

Childish

15831583 views00 comments00 favs

woke up to the sound of a diesel looked out the window to see i’m not home outta bed to see if you had called not a damn thing on my phone

The Little Things (three versions)

15821582 views1616 comments1212 favs

It's the little things that trip us up: a small hole in a level field, an innocuous root in a well-trod path, a disinclined sidewalk...

Gasoline

15821582 views00 comments00 favs

Her hair’s the color of LA at night On such occasions when the Santa Anas Have left the hills bone-dry and burning bright

My No. 1

15821582 views99 comments77 favs

I remember meeting you many years later.

Burned by Shoplifting, One Store Turns to a Higher Power

15821582 views88 comments55 favs

Most loss control specialists wear standard rent-a-cop outfits, but notSister Joseph Arimathea and Sister Mary Clarus, who wear the grey, white and black habits of the Precious Blood Sisters.

The Edge of Night

15821582 views33 comments33 favs

The night wrapped its arms around us as we drove west, taking the highway past Medford towards Philly. The kids were asleep in the backseat and we were both counting the mile markers, staring out the windows with quiet eyes. I listened to the drone of the…

The Blonde With a Sweet Pair

15821582 views77 comments55 favs

Long, elegant, with a touch of arch,

Mourning

15811581 views33 comments11 fav

It was a phone call we never expected. You were so full of life and joy and the sound of your laugh was pierced in our minds. Two strokes. That's what they said. No explanation, no back story. We worried we would lose you. Immediately, all of our memories with you started…

Caterpillars in love.

15811581 views22 comments11 fav

"I who?" Mrs Caterpillar slithered closer to the door, peeping through the peephole with her stemma. Upon visual inspection, she discovered that it was Mr Earthworm standing outside in the rain.

The Introduction

15811581 views1212 comments1010 favs

Lucy looked up, smiled and said mine had a head that looked like a mushroom. I suppose she was right. We were sitting on the floor drawing naked bodies for our anatomy lesson and teasing each other about our lack of drawing talent. We were new friends, having met when…

Norm Never Says

15811581 views88 comments33 favs

He was supposed to be a garden gnome. Give pause to the squirrels, keep an eye on the impatiums. We found him at Wegman’s. He looked hopeful and observant.

Take the 40 Million Years Without Sex Challenge!

15811581 views33 comments22 favs

Scientists have determined that a tiny freshwater organism known as the "bdelloid rotifer" gave up sex 40 million years ago. And you thought the spark had gone out of your marriage.

The Wolves of Night Time Wrinkle Their Noses at the Thought of Running Towards the Sun, But Do it Any Ways

15811581 views33 comments22 favs

Jesus was a cancer survivor and possibly a super nova.He ran with the Wolves of night time, with the women of the paleolithic era and hunted for meat when the blood didn't drip to their feet and create veritable red shoes like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz.I am no longer in…

CfK

15811581 views22 comments11 fav

A sturdy and goatish original by know-nothing punks from the sticks. Who cares if we were puny and smelled like fresh milk? For a few years we played and rocked, even turned the Appalachian soundscape a little brown at the edges. At least at first. Mainly

Saturday Housekeeping

15811581 views1919 comments1313 favs

but I pretend again I've kept the prairie/ out, have battled back the smoke and dirt

Backing up at Wal-Mart

15811581 views66 comments44 favs

An action oriented solution for bovinity