Most read stories

So long

14361436 views99 comments88 favs

Years later he surveys this place again to post something, anything. He plays "sex on fire," sounds that once fueled him. Now he knows the song is about VD, not unbridled potency. Names and words all seem at once familiar and numbing and noise. He once wanted fame or…

everything moved in circles

14361436 views1414 comments99 favs

everything moved in circles like the music, the booze and the drugs

The Echoes of Infinity

14361436 views22 comments22 favs

Marilyn turned the kayak away from the target ship, barely visible after all these years, toward the shallow waters by the shore. She recalled her father holding her hand at low tide, as she looked up at him and he told her…

A Dialectical Digression

14361436 views1010 comments33 favs

It performs the dialectic that intertwines real and ideal through her mounting concern about being choked to death then eaten by a very large pig.

Letter to John Berryman

14351435 views33 comments11 fav

My dad was an Army Reservist stationed in the U.S.—New York and Texas—the bugler in his corps. He golfed on summer weekends at Hazeltine in the course of his career. I had seen houses water colored prettily within the lines on L.S.D., after noticing not

Arcana Magi Zero + Pure - c.4

14351435 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.

Arcana Magi Pure Vol.7 - c.1

14351435 views00 comments00 favs

Mayumi stepped back and watched the hand slowly slide along, guiding her to follow it. Her head turned until she saw Emi across from her.

A Night in Saudi Arabia

14351435 views55 comments22 favs

I walk through nameless streets, narrow and winding, past shops selling scarves, spices, skins.

bric a brac road

14351435 views22 comments11 fav

bric a brac road

Arcana Magi Memorial Vol.5 - c.5

14351435 views00 comments00 favs

Getting answers felt like it was not enough. Madam Mayweather wanted more. She wanted to hurt someone.

My Brother the Painter

14351435 views1111 comments1010 favs

My father bouncing his leg to slow rock music with me on one knee, telling me I should keep a special place in my heart for my teeth, to remember where I lose them, on the playground like he did when he was my age, fighting a friend named Bobby-Joe. Or else I could lose…

The Naming

14351435 views99 comments88 favs

we name invasive species,

One More Good Hand

14351435 views33 comments11 fav

It's been like that of late. One bad beat after another. I used to hold all the cards, kick some ass, be rolling in it and buying the Crystal at Birdland for all my special ladies. Now I can't get in without a steep cover and my markers are no good in the

The Nude Pianist: A Novel: Chapter 54

14351435 views44 comments22 favs

Frank shouldered his backpack, grabbed the leather satchel packed with his brushes, palette knives, pens, and pencils, and exited the vaporetto at the Rialto Bridge.

Hardware Store Tour

14351435 views1515 comments1010 favs

The Plaza had a chess-board floor, green wood booths, and the lights stayed up. I might be combining a memory of Fitzie's in Binghamton. The Plaza felt like a preppy soda fountain with beer.

I Don't Want to Go to the Bronx

14351435 views55 comments33 favs

"... each of them stuck in one finger to sample the goods. Just then Katie felt a breeze on her bare legs. Her skirt literally moving."

Absinthe

14351435 views33 comments33 favs

In a dazzle of emerald softness, it flew out into the breeze wanting for the red apple in the tree just outside my window. The power had gone out, spare change to total meltdown, and the air inside was stifling, thick with mind-numbing languor and mosquitoes. So I…

Our Own

14351435 views88 comments66 favs

The world is upon us. The only thing that matters Now is if you are willing to be seen by them. Many moths Will be hidden by simply gathering on the bark Of the one tree, but this will not sustain you if you Do not also have the courage…

I've Bought You A Present

14341434 views22 comments11 fav

Look out your window and know that the universe conspired to craft the sunrise for your morning tea, the mug clasped in hand, the light bouncing from the balcony railing. The empty seat next to you will always be filled and I will never properly thank y

Community

14341434 views1414 comments88 favs

an undercurrent of fear is running through my community

The Facts of This Life as Its End Approaches

14341434 views1414 comments1010 favs

The knees remind you: you are old,/ and broken, and unlikely to improve

TRAUMA

14341434 views77 comments44 favs

Everybody breaks. Everything splinters.

Cups for Saucers

14341434 views55 comments55 favs

They were everywhere walking right above us or so it seemed, back and forth, back and forth with their lousy, crunching heels making hollow chewed up noises that took all the sweet sounds left on earth and had them march along…

Asking an Accomplished Poet Friend to Read My Poetry in a Starbucks at 2PM on a Thursday

14341434 views66 comments22 favs

Your usage of the English language / is awkward and passé—

It Isn’t Personal. It’s Business

14341434 views1212 comments66 favs

because you pay/ for it to matter to me.

Australia (from slushpilemag.com)

14341434 views11 comment00 favs

Now Ninalee gets up from the table. She starts to put some snacks in a bag for Janny and Benjie, and some storybooks in there too, to read to them in the park: books about trains, mostly, and there’s one with a bus and one with a car...

I'm Dreaming of a Nihilistic Christmas

14341434 views66 comments44 favs

The mind sparkles with Shakespeare. It's like hearing the rain fall. The world becomes silent and dark and the rain becomes snow and falls like snow and rests on the ground like snow and informs the mind with the values of heaven. A distant oboe pins its sympathies…

Field Sobriety

14341434 views11 comment00 favs

A San Francisco cab driver named Jake, a friend of a friend, was my date for the party. I didn't really like him, but I needed someone to bring. In the 70s free love was the norm, but it was hard to have sex with a guy I wasn't really attracted to. …

Begonia {part three}

14341434 views22 comments00 favs

Now, the Kingdom of Begonia was known for its serenity and virtue. But just like any other place, there can sometimes be dark and mysterious inhabitants.

Life Sized

14331433 views55 comments55 favs

The first time I saw Little Man was on a bright, hot afternoon near the end of November, when the trains had just pulled into the fair grounds and the familiar smell of upturned turf and sun-basked animals returned to Sarasota.