Most read stories

Chapter 1

14391439 views33 comments11 fav

“The King,” he paused, pursed his lips, looked across the crowd of eager and fearful citizens of Ki, “is dead!”

Poem for the betraying Lover and his new Love

14391439 views33 comments33 favs

Wishing he holds you all night, unshaven chin/between your breasts.

In A Lightning Storm, Sheep Run Through Barbed Wire

14391439 views44 comments33 favs

I used to fear things. The lonesome wind come through the clapboards. Dry hillsides rustling. My own skin in the summer heat. Rattlers. Lurking. Abandoned coal pits. Pa said I was afraid of desolation. I didn't know what he meant by that. How can you be…

Over simplifying the solution, or, there have been way too many celebrations at the confetti factory

14391439 views00 comments00 favs

Try and put my bones back in

Trompe l'oeil

14391439 views1818 comments1313 favs

After her grief had subsided, the wife felt immediate relief. / Suddenly she was free to abandon or pursue loneliness

Chest Bump Bass Detroit

14391439 views22 comments11 fav

son a superfly/alligator shoe clad/networking man/working a beeper and flip phone/twisting blueberry spliffs/on ma's porch

Head Over Feet.

14391439 views44 comments44 favs

And if I lived a thousand lives...

"A Wedding Feast" (a lost parable of Jesus)

14391439 views00 comments00 favs

There was much joy in Galilee, for it was not often that two marriages, not merely one, were celebrated in one ceremony.

Assiduity Twelve

14391439 views1010 comments22 favs

Rasheed changes his mind about working for me. He can't bring himself to break with Uzma. The bond between them is too strong. I admire his loyalty, to her and to her parents. Don turns out to be my most reliable ally. Plus, he brings a ragtag security force with…

Measures

14391439 views22 comments00 favs

Pascal would let something slip now and then. He was sharp and spoke excellent English, with a beautiful Spanish accent. He corrected speech among the guys, but he exercised his lessons in grammar with an eloquence that fascinated all of us, not letting a

Be Afraid

14391439 views77 comments55 favs

Everything conspires to kill you:

raging bull guy

14381438 views55 comments22 favs

I’d made that shot a thou­sand men­tal times, and when it counted, I missed. It hap­pens.

A Life of My Own - 7

14381438 views22 comments11 fav

The park is filled with tents, tarps, and supporting structures, along with hundreds of diverse individuals seeking a common focus, wanting to make a difference, expressing an abundance of opinion, verbally and with signs.

Queens and Kings

14381438 views22 comments33 favs

I underline the passages Momma does in her Bible and circle the same words she does, of the oil Samuel uses to anoint David...

Right in the Back

14381438 views22 comments00 favs

I loved baseball and still do, but if you saw me at eleven years old you would not mistake me for that kid over there, the one with even an ounce of talent. Mine you’d measure in atoms.

Duck for Dinner

14381438 views11 comment11 fav

My friend and I were once walking the aisles of a supermarket because we decided we were going to have roasted duck. We didn’t know how to cook, but as the old Filipino reds used to say: If not now, when? If we don’t learn how to cook now, as in NOW, then

Inside, Outside

14381438 views1010 comments55 favs

You drive that '67 Ford PU down highway 73 like it's gonna take you where you want to go. Pig truck makes you want to roll up your window, but it's just too damned hot. You stop on the shoulder next to a sign that tells you not to, and you look in your glove box for a…

My Single Mother

14381438 views22 comments11 fav

Like the willow she stands alone, swaying.

The Room

14381438 views11 comment00 favs

Not really a story but a look at how we live

On an Iceberg of Words

14381438 views88 comments66 favs

She cut me adrift On an iceberg of words And words melt As you know Looks like we may have Gone out on the limb A little too far without A toe-hold on Reality Doesn’t it? But I saw the headlines: Cows Bound for Slaughterhouse Make

Me and Not Me

14381438 views55 comments44 favs

Is there a homunculus in my brain guiding everything like the pilot of an airliner?

What's Done, What's Left to Do

14381438 views22 comments00 favs

When she was just a little bit younger, Dana wanted to be known around town as something other than the girl who used up all the machines at the laundromat with her little brothers' Spiderman underwear and her grandpa's pants soiled with God-knows-what. Something…

WHO'S RICH?

14381438 views00 comments00 favs

she flips you a smile and a white plastic menu, and all the blood in your head, and upper body rushes to your crouch, and god-all- mighty, space aliens from the planet Vanna White could be landing in their unnumbered hoards in the parking lot, and all

If. You. Speak.

14381438 views66 comments55 favs

The one at dusk is not the one you met this morning. That one's gone like a head in the window.

Assiduity Twenty Seven

14381438 views66 comments44 favs

" . . . with twinges of dread and pangs guilt, I worry . . . "

Kintsukuroi

14381438 views22 comments22 favs

The scared woman, she hides her flaws from the world.

On Being Choked

14381438 views11 comment22 favs

I was sitting at my desk at work and couldn't figure out why it felt like a person with a very weak grip was trying to strangle me. Then, I realized I was wearing a scarf.

Grounded

14381438 views66 comments33 favs

No temporary solace upon this patch of earth, stymied in your injury; labored by your girth.

The Judge's Wife Part 3

14381438 views44 comments22 favs

Everything clicked.

Love Tracer

14381438 views77 comments44 favs

(2:56 a.m.): "Hi it's Charlie it's Pat at 4:00 in the morning my time. I just wanna tell you that I wouldn't mind getting him in bed with you the rest of my life."