Most read stories

The Shredded Carcass of a Small, Helpless Animal

12201220 views11 comment00 favs

It gets eaten.

The Invention of a Curse Word

12201220 views88 comments44 favs

I saw his face

Returning

12201220 views44 comments33 favs

YOU cross the park as the evening gathers, the playground is deserted, streetlights spark up orange beyond the trees that veil the main road. You feel your journey pushing at your back, the last scraps of the energy of a train hammering north. At the far edge of…

Shark

12201220 views33 comments33 favs

Violet goes with her mother to the home, delivering cookies to old folks. She's getting to hate how she goes along with everything her mother asks. Some of her friends are rebelling already, and Violet feels something under her skin. It's still just a dark shape, lurking…

Seeds of Summer

12201220 views66 comments33 favs

Excerpt

Grounded

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

We Must Save Ourselves

12201220 views22 comments22 favs

We Must Save Ourselves I'm looking for my savior on subways, Is he this man pushing half himself On a skate board, from car to car, Singing I have no Legs, I have no Legs, I'm looking for my savior in coffee shops Of…

Gone Shopping

12201220 views00 comments00 favs

She found Matthew toward the back, cradling an urn with a tasteful black and gold pattern. When he saw her approaching, he held it up for inspection. “You think I’d look good in this?” he asked.

Star Light, Star Bright

12201220 views1616 comments1212 favs

I am experience and information// at a small but irredeemable remove.

Hook

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“What the fuck!” Duke muttered, amazed at what he was seeing in the darkened store. A thin curtain of smoke was rising from under the baseboard like an inverted waterfall. It stretched the entire length of the left wall. Holy shit, the joint's on fire! I…

Penultimate Vampirekiller for 2025

12201220 views00 comments00 favs

". . . Stinkin' vampires, death to all of ’em, them and their plague-festerin' rats. But the new ones, I don’t mind takin’ ’em down before gettin’ rid of ’em. —But you’ll never get that smell off o’ you if you use only one condom, I’m here to tell you . .

Song Against Unwarranted Cheer

12201220 views77 comments22 favs

If I should stumble into cheerfulness/ remind me of all the business models

To The Little Mouse Who Started Feeling Slightly Nauseous

12201220 views66 comments55 favs

I heard them praying to some god none of us had ever heard of. I'm glad I went to the funeral and still have the yellow rose that I did not throw into his grave. At some point you have to stop nibbling from the moldy cake.

Graven Images

12201220 views66 comments55 favs

Mother hated a crucifix. Graven, she said. Evidence that Catholics weren't saved, just stuck in ceremony. Jesus had risen and anyone who had to pray in Latin, count beads or confess to robed men who took orders from a monarch didn't know…

Nineveh

12201220 views00 comments00 favs

My heart was a puzzle completely incomplete, until I learned of love in your embrace.

Airline Passengers! Is There A Right To Recline?

12201220 views11 comment11 fav

It's called the Knee Defender. But I prefer to think of it as the Schmuck Identifier.

Virgo

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I said he was cold. I said I like cold.

Every Step, and There Are Lots

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Her plastic shopping bag brushes your leg. You look into it and all you see is a 2 liter of Coke, a bag of Lay’s potato chips and a package of Oreos. It’s so oddly touching, so purely American, that your heart breaks a little bit. You want to hug t

Proverbs of the Converted

12191219 views99 comments77 favs

a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single ticket

Halfsies

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You and she might make love here, next week, and I'll buy my own razor, switch from baths to showers. I shave my legs in my imagination. They, like life, are smooth.

Migration

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A friend's remark about androgyny, "it's overrated," she said.

Refer Madness

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There is an old Indian story which says that if a person inhales basil fumes, then scorpions will grow in the inhaler's brain. We have basil growing all over our garden, so this explains the absolutely stinging sensation I feel in my cerebellum after cutting the basil hedge…

Ave Maria: Part 6

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“I swear that man is a force of nature.” This was her mother's way of describing her father whenever her mother came too close to the precipice. While growing up, she could never allow herself to fully acknowledge the meaning behind her mother's…

The Thrill of a Lifetime

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I honestly can’t say, with Lynda, who cheated first. More than likely Lynda did, because I know she was pregnant when I came home from college for the summer (this was 1963) and we had to go out and find a doctor who would give her some pills to get rid

The Fat Girl

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She never leaves her desk, but food appears like magic.

The Nude Pianist: A Novel: Chapter 12

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Frank was happy to leave the art show and take the train back to SoHo.

Autumn

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Early morning cokeBottle. Did Katie callHeiddegger "Skippy"?Remember years backWhen we studied so hard andHa ha, just kidding.As you age, neverForget you are dying noFaster than before.

What You Get

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In moving crowds I plan to break you.

R.I.P. Ann Bogle

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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…

Vacation

12181218 views55 comments33 favs

The week before she left for Costa Rica with her new lover she called me. Often, she did this. We talked for hours. What should I pack on my trip? she asked. Setting out with him …