Most read stories

Rock, Roll, et al.

15111511 views1010 comments55 favs

She looks for the obit, can't find. Over and over, looks. Nothing. Nothing except something touching her shoulder. Follow me. Corridors, doors, along and along, no time to notice that this last is the stage door — she was so suddenly there in the blare and…

The Nude Pianist: A Novel: Chapter 4

15111511 views44 comments22 favs

He arrived at Bellevue hospital in a straight jacket bound to a gurney.

Christmas Email from an Aging Wicked Stepmother

15111511 views55 comments22 favs

Your stepsisters send their love. All three are still on the wagon.

I'm Dreaming of a Nihilistic Christmas

15111511 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…

In Due Time

15111511 views1111 comments1010 favs

Almost every weekend I'd ask Henry to go out with me and Marge, telling him we could double and, hey, maybe he could bring Ellen, who he dated a while back, who still asked about him. I'd suggest such things as going to a movie or out for a few drinks to reminisce about our…

Becoming

15111511 views1111 comments33 favs

Ego bereft of consistency Betrays a heart hungering to toll. Unable to trust its will Or harbor imaginary gods, It gains a hold melding into a role whose proven viability Can give convincing cover To buy time to fabricate An identity that feels unique, Yet…

The Secret of Healers and Monsters

15111511 views22 comments11 fav

If there was a single constant in the boy’s life, it was that he had always thrown knives. In his youth he had thrown them only in his mind . . .

The Weather in Paradise

15111511 views33 comments33 favs

I immediately felt anxious guilt, being the one responsible for opening the way for infection.

Awaiting the End of Time

15101510 views1414 comments88 favs

The alphabets will disappear.

White Summer Dress

15101510 views44 comments22 favs

Light youth that barely touches the ground

What 68 Years on Planet Earth Have Taught Me

15101510 views88 comments1010 favs

Life is not always quixotic.

Acclimation

15101510 views44 comments22 favs

Before I grew used to it I would wake to the sound of the Amtrak whistle echoing down along the tracks behind our trailer park and wonder who was hurtling where through the dark night and across this wide Illinois prairie

Christmas

15101510 views88 comments33 favs

First of all, there was no snow. I seem to remember that. And there was no Christmas tree in the house.

Ghosts

15101510 views11 comment11 fav

"Yes. It was moving, and not along the ground, either. We were. . . looking toward the cemetery, and the ghost or whatever was clearly visible. . ."

The French Horn Behind Me

15101510 views77 comments55 favs

And right there beside me That single wobbling Snail-like trail of my heavy French Horn case

The Nude Pianist: A Novel: Chapter 52

15101510 views55 comments33 favs

In his dreamlike state the pianist turned into a preying mantis.

Beauty

15101510 views77 comments66 favs

Now, this boy removed his socks in front of me, on the chair beside my desk where I read my books, and said: “My toenails aren’t shaped properly.”

Father Dunne's School for Wayward Boys #1

15091509 views1717 comments99 favs

A young girl wavering between celibacy and punk mother-lust despair came to visit us each night

Airman

15091509 views00 comments00 favs

Tent City has gone quiet. There is a deadline. I heard it on the news. I’ve never thought about the word before. How in this place it means what it means.

Love Stories

15091509 views1212 comments1111 favs

I've got an appointment to see my shrink next Wednesday. She's pretty sharp. Not bad looking, either.

She Rose From the Weeds

15091509 views1010 comments88 favs

you drove by the woman standing on the verge the woman with the shoulders of a long distance swimmer and you told yourself her story: she'd slept in the wiregrass she carries…

Uniquely Portland

15091509 views44 comments00 favs

He saw his mother standing over him, and he called out to her for help, but she only laughed and faded into the paper towel dispenser.

Trees

15091509 views11 comment11 fav

years later, she won’t go near the trees

Picnic Jugs

15091509 views99 comments55 favs

The car was a two-tone black and white Chevy...

Broken Vase

15091509 views66 comments11 fav

Once was when we were in Vegas on layover from L.A., I told her I thought we should go to the Elvis Chapel and get remarried.

Threads of a Dream

15091509 views1010 comments55 favs

I'm gonna go find a hole to dwell in deep in the mountains where the Indians used to live dig a cave into my subconscious learn to be less secretive

Trio Anomie

15091509 views2323 comments1111 favs

We deny one another, here,/ as long as it’s plausible.

You, the Real Story

15091509 views1010 comments99 favs

I don't need to be toldhow natural you are, not here.I'm reminded every singletime I open my eyes.What I want to know iswhere have you gone? Whyhas it taken you so verylong to return? But Iknow the answer. You aresomewhere fighting for your dearlife. It's what we all do--in…

Beer, for my Gravediggers

15091509 views33 comments00 favs

It's cheap beer, but cold you welcome that rushing hiss and the following long drink of chilly wetness washing away the parched, dust dry, cotton mouth of grave-digging in the desert sun

No. Please, No . . .

15091509 views11 comment00 favs

["LIKE SAND THROUGH THE HOURGLASS ... SO ... ARE THE DAYS OF OUR LIVES!"]