Most read stories

Rocket

15961596 views99 comments88 favs

The Chicago to Denver fast train clocked 90 MPH plus, but braked hard on the long curve through town, sparks ringing flanged wheels.

My Date with Edgar Allen Poe

15961596 views1313 comments88 favs

Now, if someone is tellin' you that she had a date with Edgar Allen Poe, you might be tempted to say, "Hey, sister, what kind of drugs you be doin' for the last two days?" But I swear on my Aunt Boo's chastity belt that's what went down and with my…

a can of emotional worms

15961596 views00 comments11 fav

Is any person is worthy of the kind of ache?

Desert

15961596 views77 comments55 favs

On a trail, Richard and I came upon a saguaro cactus that had dried in the shape of a human figure. Its arms were lifted and its back was stooped. I said, “It looks like my mother.”

During the Interim

15951595 views77 comments55 favs

Nothing changes; the moon arcs its mindful lemon eye. . .

Arcana Magi Zero + Pure - c.4

15951595 views00 comments00 favs

Everyone kept up with Nemo until the scent led them to the edge of the city. The elders sniffed the ground and found Satoshi’s scent into the stoned woods.

Sweet Sorrow

15951595 views1313 comments1111 favs

He sat at the bar and waited for her. He looked at the noon drinkers with indifferent eyes.

Osama, Osama--He's After Your Mama!

15951595 views00 comments00 favs

Captain Zeep came to Earth at last century's end to help pave the way for a Zorkian takeover by 2012 at the latest. Key to the game plan: Earthlings had to get dumber than eggplants. When George Bush stole the White House, Zeep figured, Bingo, dumb…

Shoe Lace

15951595 views1111 comments66 favs

Is this a place to show posterity and mortality?

My Dad was a ditch digger

15951595 views77 comments66 favs

men sitting on stoops women earning the rent by working as servants in the rich folks yard

The Catcher and the Caught

15951595 views99 comments88 favs

Like the swift night-black blue of a cormorant as it suddenly dips into a rush of white cold water,eyeing its possible food, we too sweepdown on what we think we see, rising wet sometimes with the reward,or hapless, dripping, we try again.

Stuff

15951595 views44 comments55 favs

Art books, paintings, antique chairs, marble tables, full length gold gilded mirrors, oriental rugs, tapestries, a Louis XVI painted French armoire, a wrought iron Deco coffee table, flat ware, silver flasks, mantel lamps, iron gates, a silk settee, theat

Route 346

15951595 views11 comment11 fav

Route 346 is the way Pop drove to Troy long after everybody else took Route 2. Today Charlie and I drive in the opposite direction. Back then, Pop drove us to Troy on Route 346 on Sunday afternoons with the car windows…

HEADLINES

15951595 views00 comments00 favs

Warranties are what made America great, although hers has expired and the mailbox will remain empty for another fifteen days.

My Third First Novel

15951595 views22 comments33 favs

One of the publishing industry’s dirty little secrets is that first novels sell much better than second novels. So why not enhance your chances for success by calling your second novel your first?

Song for Cathy to Sing

15951595 views77 comments55 favs

The snap of a broken heart is exactly One second longer than this poem is going To be when it finishes up being said . The snap Of a broken heart is unlike anything that Cartwheels out of sync with the rest of Us truly lucky ones. The broken snap of a …

Every Time a Bell Rings

15951595 views11 comment00 favs

I could feel the old house skulking in the shadows. In the basement I used to play in the dark, shine a flashlight on the angular black widows creeping in the corners, feed them ants and silverfish and flies with the wings pulled off so the web wouldn’

My Friend

15951595 views66 comments55 favs

Remember when we went to New York to take our test? We looked for cheap hotels near the test site, and there was the "Hotel Earle." Twelve bucks a night. The clerk behind bullet-proof glass, smiling a knowing smile. Pubes still on the sheets, but we couldn't sleep anyway,…

All Fall Down

15951595 views1010 comments99 favs

He just up and dropped dead one day, Charles said. Pretty tough on Karen, I opined. Charles looked the other way.

Dial Tone

15951595 views33 comments33 favs

I am asking for something as simple as water. In an oak tree, weeping, a child climbed too high. Tears that the barkstain will never wash clear. O love. We ask far too much when we fall. In a momentary lapsus, the words…

Crazy Later

15951595 views66 comments22 favs

A year ago, my neighbor was a sexy graduate student in fashion design, sounds perhaps shabby, yet if it is, then we in the Middle West are all shabby. That girl's father graduated from high school with Bob Dylan in Hibbing, not entitling her to a child.

Day 1 of Composing the Second Novel

15941594 views1313 comments55 favs

Tongue / Giddy

15941594 views1515 comments44 favs

A delicate thrill buzzed my face.

shakey

15941594 views22 comments00 favs

You held my hand when I hit the ground and told me the shakes would start soon.

Four from “Autobiographies”

15941594 views1414 comments66 favs

The white space beckons-/ a blank wall in a decrepit neighborhood-/ wishing to be decorated or defiled

Kitchen Fruit Fly Suicides

15941594 views55 comments55 favs

How the hell do these 1/8 inch long red-eyed flying insects wind up in my kitchen anyway?

Thick Hair

15941594 views88 comments66 favs

He fell through her scalp-crust

Present Tense

15941594 views88 comments55 favs

What fascinates me now is now, this instant, this moment. This fugitive, this delinquent, this indiscreet, this forever elusive now. Now now. Now is now and now it is not now. Now is the adversary of time.…

Ah, You’re Funny. Good Thing

15941594 views88 comments33 favs

I was talking to this famous female artist at the reception, (as if I knew anything,) “If you want to be taken as a serious artist now, you have to have one long serious eyebrow.” There was no reaction. So, I said: “Also, you should kn

Corrections & Clarifications

15941594 views1515 comments22 favs

It was Fredrick Miller, not his murdered son Matthew, who was executed Monday night at Henshaw Prison. (the system won't take anything under 200 characters, so this part is just to take up space. please ignore)