Most read stories

My Father Said, "I Miss the Game."

14371437 views44 comments44 favs

Of course he misses it,

Every Mirror with Two Sides

14371437 views22 comments22 favs

She was gazing down at her two hands holding the peach seersucker top, but without blinking she saw four hands—ahh, idiot, the mirror! But in the next moment no, it was four hands . . .

Odysseus Remembered

14371437 views55 comments55 favs

Years later Polyphemus still remembers the wine-soaked taste of Odysseus’s men. The barley and garlic-flavored Greeks. Their flesh a fibrous, blood-hued hummus. Their crunched bones releasing sweet marrow.

The Cure for Cancer

14371437 views99 comments77 favs

Thus, more people can drown// and leave their bones

Heavyweight

14371437 views22 comments22 favs

That afternoon, after I'd swallowed that weight. Felt like a sinker, one of those weights that fishermen attach to their line to make sure the line goes down far enough. Go down far enough there, and I'll find it. That's what I was on about, that I had…

At the Jr. Algonquin Roundtable

14361436 views22 comments11 fav

“He didn’t finish ‘The Witchcraft of Salem Village,’” Scooter says, tattling on his little brother. I’m projecting him to be a first-round draft pick by the National Security Agency in about ten years.

I Go Cold Keyboard at End of Day

14361436 views11 comment00 favs

Excuse me, can I now ask to change my favorite childhood color from green to yellow?

I Used to Be a Literature Major

14361436 views44 comments33 favs

I remember reading poetry in the library / when I was in college, after skipping / Sociology, Psychology, or Theology. / I remember thinking: What is this nonsense? / I don’t want to waste my time on any of this.

Nanny

14361436 views33 comments33 favs

I remember the days when my brother and I would walk down Tillman Square, careful to avoid the cracks zigzagging along the ground. Well I did. My brother made a point to step on every one.

Luminous Nights, 2

14361436 views22 comments22 favs

The house where my brother lived up in the hills above Hollywood, looked like any other suburban house on any normal street Anywhere USA, except that once you got inside the house — spread out at your feet was a panoramic view over a canyon that was act

I'm a Clown in His Circus

14361436 views00 comments00 favs

He called me Jay. I called him Dr Corvid. Until the very end, we lived alone. We had no use for any other companionship. I was Dr Corvid's finest achievement until he perfected his Disintegration Ray. I was the first working prototype of Project Novus.Dr Corvid created me…

Myra's Cigarettes

14361436 views55 comments00 favs

I know from the experience of too many odd sideways glances that folks are seldom interested in my brand of observation. No one else seems to wonder how many commas there are in the library or how many other people own that exact shirt.

Can't We All Be Writers?

14361436 views33 comments22 favs

Why not just self-publish on Fictionaut and be read by thousands of my peers? Why not release my cherished work directly to my thousands of Facebook or Twitter or blog friends? Can the budding writer that I am realistically expect a larger audience?

Karen

14361436 views55 comments33 favs

Karen was a shy horse.

Stay By Me (And Make the Moment Last)

14361436 views00 comments00 favs

I imagine Gene Simmons licking a twelve year old girl that looks like Erin dressed in a dog collar and leash.

A Life of My Own - 8

14361436 views77 comments44 favs

I'm not sure if he's right or not but he has a gorgeous smile, he's charmingly self confident, and he's very persuasive.

13 circles of Hell revealed to the Bird King in a series of hallucinations caused by medicine for a urinary tract infection

14361436 views66 comments55 favs

1. The Kingdom of MaggotsBillions of tiny naked bald men wriggle and squirm through a derelict mannequin factory.2. The Sea of KnivesThe crests of waves slice and slash. Maimed mermaids wail.3. The Eye MoonEnvious mirrors ape the sun. An astronaut falls forever into open…

Poetry Whores

14361436 views22 comments11 fav

Something’s been eating at my craw. I’m just going to go ahead and spill it all out. You ever hear about Poetry Whores? Well, let me tell you a little about them, because if I don’t, then who will? I’m not going to name names. You can pretty much guess

Blank Inside

14361436 views11 comment11 fav

She remembers the days when she could have purchased every card in the store and found the words to fill them all.

Ballad

14361436 views33 comments22 favs

Hi de ho, and hey, hey, hey; The farmer's daughter is made of hay. I went to touch her but she blew away, And noo ma hert is nae langer gay. Hi de hoo, and how do you do? The farmer's wife has a cold up her flue, And takes me away…

Losses in Translation

14361436 views77 comments66 favs

One/ can’t always trust the eye and ear// in such matters but what can one do?/ Mistakes will be made.

Napomo 17: April 1-6

14361436 views1313 comments66 favs

April spit its greeting, toe to head.

Underpass

14361436 views00 comments00 favs

The real problem, though, was the radiator.

Why I Don’t Drink

14361436 views22 comments22 favs

He had that kind of connection / with his cocktails, intimate / sort of like a boy and his dog. // Cocktails have in any case / saved him from the bottom / of many dark wells. /

Scared Of Paradise

14351435 views77 comments44 favs

It was if you memorized my ever detail but not the why. And perhaps that is what love is. Was that love? I lie in bed waiting for the man who came after you to join me. I hear his heavy footsteps and know he wants to go to Hawaii too, when our bud

3 Poems and a Seething Pen

14351435 views22 comments00 favs

it’s more about how all those words look around each other. he’s more interested in the shape of things, than the reality....

Mercury Unbound - 2

14351435 views88 comments44 favs

An infested, indifferent universe . . .

Pavane

14351435 views33 comments22 favs

The shadows hang fast on the downs this day: And I hang like the darkness, over heath and down; Since the air there is clearer than the clouds, men say, And I'm lost in the country, I shall turn to town. If the heather is restless, then the fete is …

The Sun's Curtains

14351435 views88 comments66 favs

It must be nice not to have to worry About certain things because those things are not yet In your circle, or in your circus, of life. I don't begrudge you for being almost grown in A much different, sweeter place and time. I'm thrilled By…

20. Smitten

14351435 views1010 comments99 favs

Your tunamelt cadence / Sank me to ocean floors