Most read stories

Reprisal

15531553 views77 comments88 favs

Reprisal The bomb blew away hubris, shocked the arrogant bastards into humiliated silence. None of them had experienced hunger and they'd misjudged its effect. In the lobby of the palace, dirt, plaster, glass shifted, rumbled,…

Open Wounds

15531553 views11 comment11 fav

Where the skin had grazed, shredded by the coarse gravel to form scabs, fascinated Jack. It reminded him of his youth and his own grazes, scratches and stitches. As a boy he imagined scabs were rough foundations of igneous rock, blood like lava pouring th

Frothing At the Fountain

15521552 views44 comments11 fav

When I came back from California the second time, in the summer of 1965, I was the first around our town to wear my hair long, influenced by the Beatles. And I bought a bunch of blue caps that everyone in our gang wore, with the number “69” sown on

Arcana Magi Memorial Vol.6 - c.3

15521552 views00 comments00 favs

Mother’s eyes stared outward in a trance, on her throne, visualizing the world Azure made. Though it was right before her, she could not reach it.

Rest

15521552 views00 comments00 favs

What do I understand? What have I mastered or come to terms with?

To a Young Atheist & Intellectual with Dior Glasses

15521552 views22 comments22 favs

You have such a complicated mind / for refusing to believe in God / just like any damned liberal / whose fingerprints / crowd the faces of a thousand / dollar bills / being passed around your great nation...

Prologue (excerpt from a novel)

15521552 views55 comments11 fav

The clip-clopping of footsteps now echoes from the opposite end of the alleyway, and as you turn to face the figure who appears behind you, the figure wearing a fierce Noh-drama mask, you determine that this time you will enlist its aid in decoding this r

Afterworld

15521552 views1212 comments88 favs

We suffer// the one agony only- of having no longer/ any physical effect nor way to speak/ of what we watch to those we watch.

A Bad Year

15521552 views55 comments55 favs

It's been a bad year, People dying. Some too close to home, Some too far away. I cry down to you, In your casket, and think you might sit up. You were not sick You went in just a moment, Looking stunning and alive. Not…

Peanut Time

15521552 views66 comments22 favs

A peanut, who knoweth

Beautiful Are the Feet: Part One

15521552 views22 comments11 fav

Naomi hadn't expected them to come in such a big box. When the UPS man tried to hand it to her, she told him there must be some mistake, but then he pointed to her name¾NAOMI BROWN¾right there on the top. When she finally got off all that tape, she had another…

Doll Parts

15521552 views22 comments11 fav

She’s always had one foot on a pedestal and the other in a gutter.

For J.S. Bach’s Three-hundred-twenty-eighth Birthday

15521552 views66 comments55 favs

To listen is to feel embodied reason// sing and dance with consummate grace

Bunking off

15521552 views55 comments33 favs

He looked like a black paper doorway pasted onto a painting of summer.

Blind date

15521552 views11 comment00 favs

“I'll have the Ribeye cooked medium rare,” says Bill, who looks over at Julia, blonde hair and disarming smile, and he thinks that she's not bad for a blind date. He doesn't like the way she butters her roll, however, and it agitates him that she spreads…

Meteorology

15521552 views1111 comments55 favs

Among the raindrops/ occasional plopping snowflakes.

Loved, Stupid

15521552 views22 comments22 favs

I want to be adored for something and chose poetry to be that something adored for. But Annie doesn’t see why anyone would ever choose anything over love.

Bedtime Stories

15521552 views33 comments11 fav

I want to read a story that ends unhappily ever after: one where the bad guy wins and no one gets the girl.

Fine, she said

15521552 views44 comments44 favs

A rope is cleaner, he explains with a straight face. He's calmed by the visual.

stung

15521552 views1212 comments66 favs

Lust

5 Things I've Learned After 5 Years of Reviewing Small Press Books and Writing 2 of My Own

15511551 views11 comment22 favs

In today’s print-on-demand and digital world, there are unlimited avenues for aspiring writers to circulate their work, but deregulation and limitlessness often leads to chaos. Writers are more inclined to release unpolished work that fails to rise to the

Sensation

15511551 views00 comments11 fav

She could see him doing these things but she could not hear him.

Take Back the Night

15511551 views1717 comments99 favs

A woman who is, say, a culinary arts champion or an heiress devoted to literature such as Bryher (Annie Winifred Ellerman) or Peggy Guggenheim might be able to turn me on, turn me out, turn me around.

The Washing of the Quilts

15511551 views33 comments11 fav

Sweaty feet, drool from the weighty sleep of mid-afternoon naps, the inescapable perspiration of the South: all combine to create the entwined scent of socks and stale toothbrushes...

Cleaverly Done!

15511551 views22 comments11 fav

‘what’s the hassle kiddo, chopping meat is fun, come here and listen to the music of the chop, the sound of steel ripping through air, slicing through flesh and hitting wood, poetry I say’.

String Money

15511551 views1111 comments66 favs

I said hey man, how you doin’? He looked up and nodded but his shades flashed and I couldn’t see his eyes.

Where Shall We Meet?

15511551 views66 comments22 favs

And she was thinking of him, right now, at this very moment, scurrying like mad, desperate and frantic like in those dreams where you’re late and trying to get somewhere but can’t, not wanting to blow this opportunity...

In the Garden

15511551 views1212 comments44 favs

It will always be this way/ won’t it, she said. Me insecure, you unfaithful

in defense of assholes

15511551 views33 comments22 favs

No excerpt for you.

The Song of Jerome

15511551 views77 comments55 favs

"My love is with eggs!"