Most read stories

Why I Write

14841484 views99 comments44 favs

Creep up behind me one day and prick my skin. I promise you won’t draw blood – for it is ink that will spurt from my veins.

The Havisham Complex

14841484 views66 comments44 favs

Zinvushka Zokolovskaya and I first met at the local botanical garden.

A Beggar's Welcome

14841484 views44 comments55 favs

. . . it's all we ever want -- the holding.

5 Narratives From The Field Museum (Naturally)

14841484 views99 comments33 favs

5 Narratives From The Field Museum (Naturally) 1. The American wife asked her French husband why it took him 50 words to ask which pass they would need. He said, “Because it does,” and they argued more, each in their own words. 2. The child…

Beside Dripping Glaciers

14841484 views55 comments22 favs

We slept beside dripping glaciers people like us We were never meant to be housed contained, kept, petted, cleaned We could only be gutted You used us one time and threw us out people like us We sprouted the wings of desire by watchi

Weight

14841484 views1414 comments77 favs

We flew./ In my dreams, I can fly.

Must Not Be a Working Bird

14841484 views55 comments44 favs

I said, “That bird is hungry.” The sparrow was eying both of us At our separate outside café tables As it hopped around looking for crumbs. Then it would look up at us Expectantly.

I Wake Up Teetering

14841484 views66 comments55 favs

I wake up on the edge of the mattress, teetering. The dog is looking at me funny.

The Nude Pianist: A Novel: Chapter 3

14841484 views44 comments44 favs

It was like watching one of those vintage eighteen-frames-per-second films of someone trying to open a stuck umbrella.

The Jade Rabbit, Chapter One

14841484 views11 comment00 favs

Even when the sun is gone and things get dark, usually the moon comes to reflect some light of hope until a new dawn can emerge

" I Know Bernie, I Can Get You In."

14841484 views44 comments44 favs

* Dedicated to Bernie MaddoffThere was a long line at the men's room.You know,when men reach a certain age,there is an urgencyto their frequent trips.So I saw an opportunityI said:" I know Bernie I can get you in.""Really?," they saidbut I played it coy"It ain't easyBernie…

A Writer’s Ramble

14841484 views77 comments33 favs

In every writer's room there is a bogeyman born in the closet, growing with every blot on the virgin sheet, feeding on the pain of writing, of solitude, the failure, the rage, the confusion, the helplessness, the fear, the humiliation. The narrower the…

The Shadow People

14841484 views55 comments11 fav

Two summers later, the ritual began. Carol left her house at midnight, having served her husband and daughter a heavy dinner that left them caged in their sleep. She was like a thief working in reverse: she rose from bed with her husband’s first snore,

Flight

14841484 views66 comments33 favs

Another bird hits the large plate glass patio doors as I am sipping my morning coffee.

ok, ok, so I concede

14831483 views66 comments66 favs

some answers are enough to make you cry or laugh yourself to death

Assiduity Six

14831483 views1212 comments66 favs

"Every generation is a new generation, isn't it? What's so different about your generation?"

What you're waiting for.

14831483 views00 comments00 favs

I figure maybe I’m mostly alone; they are all running down staircases or falling down fire escapes, some of them naked, some of them with towels, mostly probably naked though.

Bloodsport

14831483 views11 comment00 favs

At last one of the men on the line bowed his head in a silent prayer for deliverance from what was about to come, then lifted his head and shouted loudly for his fellows to charge.

I Am the Poetic Kiss of Death

14831483 views66 comments33 favs

My poems have appeared in four different publications; three have died shortly after they ran my stuff. Coincidence, or something more sinister?

Location

14831483 views66 comments44 favs

A sunrise over the dark Atlantic, on a perfect beach day, tasting of salt and warmth and powdered sugar; of last, desperate kisses of youth, still shivering from delicious night, is beautiful.A sunrise over the dark ruins of Syria, on hot dusted stones, tasting of lament…

Jimothy

14831483 views00 comments00 favs

Alien meets nicotine

Bloody Vodka

14831483 views99 comments66 favs

Broken glass attacks me

Driving Lesson

14831483 views66 comments77 favs

Just take the mountain curves as tightly to the inside and as fast as surface conditions permit and the road’s edge

A Museum of Numbers

14831483 views00 comments00 favs

At street level there is a small arrow on which is printed “Museum of Numbers” that points up a long narrow staircase. There is a restaurant on the first floor. All the way up the stairs, the air is permeated with smell of fried foods

Static

14831483 views1111 comments66 favs

The days cut off by damp chill with every thought a different variety of protection.

Elvis, Mosquitoes & Marilyn Monroe -- What I Learned From Magazines This Week

14821482 views99 comments99 favs

People usually take fonts for granted.

Jammin' On Duane Street

14821482 views00 comments11 fav

I have cherished the memory of that meal since and have sought out Indian restaurants all over the world. San later told me that the best Indian food was to be had in London

Genealogy

14821482 views88 comments77 favs

You are an heiress to drunks. The statues of your forefathers stagger, memorialized by gravity, their faces half-lit eternally, as they reach into refrigerators for another something to keep away the cold empty.

Two Wives

14821482 views66 comments22 favs

Two women sat at a small round table near the sidewalk waiting for the same man.

Mutterings

14821482 views00 comments00 favs

That old woman's got to be senile or something. The other day she asked my daughter if I had a "thing about water." Sharon told her I didn't, but then came right in and asked me, "Mother, you got a thing about water?"