Most read stories

Conversations

15971597 views1111 comments1010 favs

That won’t kill me, will it? I asked. Maybe, the doctor said.

Morning People

15971597 views00 comments00 favs

she thinks she looks good in her short red dress, black makeup around her eyes, last night's lipstick a slap of crimson on her cheek. "like this," she says, holding the hammer above her head.

Poem for Ivor

15971597 views77 comments33 favs

How to capture in word, in song, the fleeting moments of our loveYou were hereAnd now you're goneEven as I used to lie next to you,bathed in the care and concern that emanated from your warm black brown eyes,I knew there would be that day, that you were no moreDestined for…

Greener Than Thou: Saving the Earth, One Smackdown At A Time

15971597 views22 comments11 fav

Are you a hostile person who gets into trouble when you express your anger? Would you like to annoy the hell out of people and get away with it?

The Old Dog (in response to Brian Warfield)

15971597 views33 comments00 favs

Blend the dog a drink and sit down beside him and draw straws for regrets.

Artist's Statement: Oracle

15971597 views1515 comments77 favs

Mark Reep is a faded Polaroid oracle taped to the only unbroken window of an abandoned house in Ithaca NY.

Hands Like White Porcelain

15971597 views1818 comments88 favs

Jesus is for sale. But he’s heavy.

to a gregarious stranger

15971597 views33 comments00 favs

Three lines.

Northeast of Eden (Memoir; Editor: Charlotte Curtis)

15961596 views22 comments22 favs

Snakes have no eyelids, no hips, no lobby in Washington (some creatures do!) and little support at home.

Okay

15961596 views88 comments77 favs

I supposed reluctantly that Princeton is soft as Macalester College is soft. A person could die just for having attended U.W.-Madison or Yale.

The Nude Pianist: A Novel: Chapter 40

15961596 views88 comments55 favs

—Mazel tov, schmazel tov!

TRAUMA

15961596 views77 comments44 favs

Everybody breaks. Everything splinters.

The Gift

15961596 views11 comment11 fav

Margie sprayed the gift with her most expensive perfume and tucked it into her sweater’s front pocket. This way she could hold it close to her on the subway, so no one would see the pretty wrapping and try to snatch it from her

My Latest Failure

15961596 views22 comments22 favs

Jason, the obnoxious host, thrusts his microphone against my nose.

Band Names For Sale. Inquire Within

15961596 views77 comments44 favs

Mythical Itch and the Unicorns Working Late Jacuzzi Floozy One Erection Diego Rivera’s Poncho Frieda’s Moustache Avalanche Babushka Dolls Photographic Mammary Drool Sir Gruntsalot Uber Rubber Iota Pie Elder Geese Ladylike Rud

The Ice Cream Mantra

15961596 views66 comments33 favs

Chant the ice cream mantra. Prance the do dah day ballet. Trot the t-bone tango two-step. Dance the livelong day away.

A Scalar Boson a Day

15961596 views44 comments33 favs

. . . the empiricism of the mechanical had wound tight into her, lessons her few calendars could never impart without aid from sundials, hourglasses, clocks.

Morphine

15961596 views44 comments33 favs

Until the ivy hides me in

boring

15961596 views88 comments44 favs

You don't want to knowthe details of my lifethe gossipthe boring moments strung togetheracross the lap ofmy sense of responsibilityit drives methrough the daysdoing this and thatchore, check on the listi am tired and need to stop for a drinkand then, i am filled up for a…

Freelance Your Way to Poverty

15961596 views55 comments33 favs

Buyers of freelance writing have a well-deserved reputation for responding slowly, thereby increasing your pleasure in much the same way that the Pointer Sisters longed for a slow hand.

O Where Did Our Funny Go?

15961596 views66 comments55 favs

What a nation! First we lost our money Now we’ve lost our funny

Startle Reflex

15961596 views77 comments77 favs

I’m decades in and it hasn’t gone away. In all other respects, I am normal. Life is hard, but I’m not complaining. The thing is, I am in a constant state of falling.

Painting with Big Mama

15961596 views44 comments33 favs

I still see Big Mama leaning over her garden to pick a zinnia to put in her still life. Her old pink slip, hanging diagonally a foot under her hiked up, ragged, stained dress, half covered by her paint smock, which matched her white, faux fur, bedroom sli

whispered boat

15961596 views1212 comments77 favs

word boat

Alternate Tale

15961596 views22 comments22 favs

Suppose Eve, strolling through the sunlit Garden, had not stumbled on that particular Tree at all, the wily serpent twined in its lower branches?

ghosts

15951595 views44 comments22 favs

conflicts in time

Homeless

15951595 views44 comments00 favs

blueberry tea and vodka on a Friday night

Space Program

15951595 views1212 comments77 favs

Mercury and Gemini disappointed.

Genocide City Zone

15951595 views00 comments00 favs

Welcome to the genocide city zone I'm sure you'll enjoy your stay We've been killing folks here All the live-long day If you want to join us You'll have to pay the price Your soul's the cost, so ante up C'mon and shoot the dice Welcome to the genocide city zone …

Deadheading

15951595 views11 comment00 favs

No matter how much he composes and prepares, he cannot override the electrical trigger in his brain. Something to do with the resonance of physical memory. It remembers amplitudes of current.