Most read stories

Bookstore Reading, Telegraph Ave, Berkeley

15231523 views55 comments55 favs

There’s someone in the audience who is immolating himself Cutting his own leg over and over with a pen knife And groaning: “Oh God, oh God” And all I can think from up at the podium is This guy must absolutely hate these poems I am reading

Lab Work

15231523 views11 comment00 favs

Desire stirred into the liquid reveals Cold ice smoking colder, As you pipet these channels of my heart.

Winter Paints Nelson County

15231523 views33 comments11 fav

It was more than just taste/ more than a point of view/ and oil and pigment/ that painted a store front church/ a box with a cross in a vacant lot/ that welcomed desperation, faith/ and imagination.

Interior: Classroom

15231523 views55 comments33 favs

No girl hits hard enough.

You Don't Need To

15231523 views00 comments00 favs

You need only one who notices.

The Caselvetrano Olive

15231523 views88 comments44 favs

He spotted her in Sarasota Whole Foods surveying the artichokes

The Lobbyist

15231523 views66 comments33 favs

I looked down at Earth and imagined this porn star who’d asked for my help.

Across US Sullen Teens Dump Family for Olive Garden

15231523 views22 comments11 fav

"That zit on your forehead just won't go away, will it, sweetie?" she adds as she brushes her daughter's bangs downward.

The Fourth Prague Defenestration: 12

15221522 views22 comments22 favs

Ellen and I stepped out into the hall to discuss the situation. Maybe we should make some sort of offer to purchase these paintings, because if it did turn out that they were for real, well, the value could be endless. Think of it. Vladimir Lenin, the pai

Style Shifts

15221522 views55 comments55 favs

Style Shifts “Oh, yes, my cousin. We were rude boys until the armed gangs started to gather. Used to be we could pass a night driving, playing our songs, acting tough. Yeah. We'd mouth off, flash some teeth, spark some anger when we felt like it. We…

In my day...

15221522 views55 comments66 favs

In my day, you could buy a polythene bag of cigarette butts for 5p. And everyone had a proper haircut.In my day, plumbers gave free vasectomies whilst reciting patriotic poems. And all the buses were red.In my day, there was always more than enough sex to go round, with…

A THOUSAND PARROTS

15221522 views11 comment00 favs

  The parrots woke Eddie up. That and Rocker snoring in the twin bed. A thousand parrots flying over the motel? They squawked, God how they…

Mommy

15221522 views77 comments55 favs

I miss her.

Lovelandtown Tavern

15221522 views44 comments44 favs

James Hubert III sat at the bar. It was late. His wife and kids were long in bed and he knew he should be, too. But with the Lovelandtown lift bridge stuck in mid-air, a drink beckoned him. He sat next to Vince DeSantos, a small, stout man, with a bowling

Let's Walk This Dog

15221522 views22 comments11 fav

if you don't quiver with anticipation you'll barely manage to explode

Strange

15221522 views1010 comments33 favs

Words are looking ever so strange today like a hole in space a wind in a cloud a face superimposed over a mountain

Worn

15221522 views44 comments33 favs

The shirts hanging by the back veranda serve as our memorial to them.

R.I.P. Ann Bogle

15221522 views1717 comments1010 favs

It is with great sadness I announce the passing of Ann Bogle on February 28, 2023 after a brief illness. Ann was longtime contributor and editor of these pages and a champion of small press and emerging writers.I knew Ann since the late 1970's when she was an undergraduate…

Your Tits Make My Feathers Fall Off

15221522 views66 comments66 favs

He thought she should have come with an owner’s manual So he would know how to operate the equipment It was definitely more than he bargained for Or knew how to handle She was too hot

January First

15221522 views1212 comments99 favs

Enumerate the small delights/ this bright first morning

White Room

15221522 views66 comments22 favs

A white room is empty but for you, a card table and a chair.

The Winter's Too Warm for Bears to Sleep

15221522 views88 comments77 favs

The winter’s too warm for the bears to sleep, and they get up in the middle of the night with insomnia and wander about the streets in their pajamas, knocking over garbage cans, looking for a midnight snack of some kind. They’re getting kind o

Regret

15221522 views99 comments88 favs

Regret takes the shape of little clouds ...

Professional Pizza Patter

15221522 views44 comments00 favs

We all stared, somewhat shocked and mostly disgusted.

The Poisoning

15221522 views1111 comments99 favs

The Poisoning I used to call my dad Serpico. Thirty years on the police force, and though a respected officer, he never fit in. He never had beers with the guys at the end of a shift or engaged in the more lewd locker room talk. None of the other cops were privy to which…

Sinking to the beat

15211521 views66 comments44 favs

I'd wear my pajamas too, fitting for the big sleep

Aurora Borealis

15211521 views99 comments55 favs

I recalled the one night stand I'd had with the girl one balmy summer night in Minneapolis. We lay on my bed in the moonlight, and I touched the nipples of her tiny breasts with the thumb and pinkie of one hand.

Esmée

15211521 views33 comments11 fav

Esmée sat alone at a table on the terrace at Marina Jack’s in Sarasota. She had been there ten minutes and no waitress had approached her.

Myself Today

15211521 views22 comments22 favs

Suddenly I'm not feeling it anymore. / Poetry has become insufficient. / I can't do it like I used to.

MOTHER MOUSE AND HER BRATS

15211521 views00 comments00 favs

Oh, you aren't going to lecture us, for heaven's sake?