Most read stories

The Threshold of Unfinished Business

15821582 views77 comments66 favs

Uh oh, the dry cleaning ticket

Neactains, Quay St.

15821582 views1010 comments66 favs

Rarely is Quay Street so clean, Monday in rain, Neactain’s ticking over with Slow jazz and crosswords, Stout and steaming anoraks.

Lost

15811581 views55 comments11 fav

I can't find my way back to the library. I've heard of this happening, that if you leave even for just one day and for a very good reason, as good a reason as mine, you may not find your way back. Now why should this be so? I do not understand this library. It houses…

On Socks

15811581 views66 comments55 favs

There’s a hole in my sock, just large enough that my big toe keeps slipping out.

Chlorine Dream

15811581 views44 comments44 favs

death spoke in a swimming pool in late june:

The Agreement

15811581 views99 comments99 favs

Our Irish tradition is rich in Yeats, drenched in Bushmills.

For the Wives

15811581 views1414 comments88 favs

She parks the car and trudges insidefor her daily visithoping that the new rouge hidesthe old tears.Five years now she has been comingto see himHe looks nothing like the pictures toanyone but her.They say she should go homeand rest, relaxShe doesn't know how…

River Run

15811581 views99 comments77 favs

yearning amid the waning

THE CAPTION CHANGES BUT THE PICTURE STAYS THE SAME

15811581 views1313 comments44 favs

When he leaves herThe weather is glorious of courseUnblinking sunshineHe walks awayShe touches the edge of his sleeve I touch his sleeveBlack jacket flung over his shoulder Black jacket over his…

The Letter

15811581 views22 comments11 fav

I knew nothing about the letter at first. When I came in that morning and smiled and said good morning, it was a genuine smile and a heartfelt good morning. But the letter, which had arrived the previous afternoon, was already doing its corrosive work of

Gemini

15811581 views99 comments44 favs

Not many people like Geminis.

Struggle Has Ended

15811581 views11 comment00 favs

Shh! What? The downstairs neighbors. They’re at it again. What? It’s the weekend? They’re both home? Oh. Remember? I think so. Sort of. Shh! What’s that grunting? He must be doing the heavy lifting. Sounds like he’s hurt

Sewing the Labyrinth

15811581 views33 comments11 fav

If girls have keys for fingers then locks cannot hold them.

The Work of Beauty

15811581 views88 comments77 favs

the steady, persistent work of beauty

In the wee small hours

15811581 views66 comments33 favs

If you're in an airport in the predawn hours, you are by definition a failure. You failed to make your flight; the airline gave you motel money but you're hoarding it

Squirm

15811581 views33 comments11 fav

“We should start a virgins' support group,” said Cindi one autumn afternoon. We were sitting in the bay window of the Campus Coffee Cavern ...

Gold Digger

15811581 views11 comment00 favs

Sophie hoped that Ryan would just stay in the bathroom and never come out. Her stomach turned just thinking about him, but wealthy nerds were easier to work than wealthy regular guys. No self-esteem, no experience with women…no problem.

Two Little Words

15801580 views88 comments55 favs

I'll never be a Republican Megadonor or a Doomed Aviatrix. But I'm okay with that.

Wax Off

15801580 views1111 comments66 favs

The time has come to scrape the wax from my menorah.

Bukowski

15801580 views1515 comments1010 favs

that guy/ MOSTLY understood / endings

Puerility

15801580 views55 comments44 favs

--So, why are you here?

Sounding

15801580 views1313 comments1212 favs

Grey would rather be in the trees or down by the river. When a wind comes up, he grabs the wooly blanket from the hook in the barn and calls Phoebe. They stretch the blanket out between them and sail into the grassy meadow that slopes down the hill from t

Losing Things

15801580 views66 comments33 favs

I infuriate myself with this gift.

Where's My Phreakin' Nobel Prize in Physics?

15801580 views77 comments33 favs

Where I went to college, you couldn’t swing a dead cat in a physics lab without hitting a Nobel laureate. I know–we tried. They finally made us stop–it wasn’t fair to the cat.

Birth Mothers, Seeking

15801580 views00 comments11 fav

A blonde girl, her youth evident beneath a cosmetic mask of bruised eye shadow and plum lipstick, claims the seat beside me on a train. A radiant six month-old gazes out from her hip, awe-struck at life, as my own son must have been at that age. I never e

A DEBT

15801580 views11 comment11 fav

A rose and two dollars. Where did they come from? I didn't know anyone who had visited my parents' grave recently, yet that evening I saw a white rose on my mother's side and two bucks on my father's. I took the money and placed my own flowers with the rose. It had to have…

My Life As A Series Of Houses (1950-1968)

15801580 views44 comments22 favs

There were three other guys on the bus. The landlord (or buslord) let us use the kitchen and bathroom in the house he shared with his wife. I rode into San José City College with the other guys, who were also taking classes there. I remember frigid autum

Fidelity

15801580 views55 comments44 favs

The night before leaving, we have French toast and red wine in Matthew's kitchen, our packs and sleeping bags and tents surrounding us, looming like golems. Because we're nervous, and a little drunk, the conversation inevitably turns to grammar. "I'm sure I learned…

Karmic Tide

15801580 views1010 comments44 favs

Digging in another garden, jumping into another space and time, I impaled a toad on the tines of a garden fork. At first I thought the toad was a clump of clay, stuck to the thick tine, but before I could kick the clay off with my…

Hitting the Wall

15801580 views1313 comments1111 favs

I tried to talk, but only / whispers slithered out.