Most read stories

Pieces of the poet

13971397 views88 comments22 favs

This is the poem you leave behind that you die in the middle of.

Why Men Compete

13971397 views44 comments33 favs

It starts on the Fallopian Speedway:

Graven Images

13971397 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…

My Plastic Dreams

13971397 views55 comments33 favs

Once, in the past or future, but definitely not in the present, I worked as a transportation minister for a friendly dictator, whose name was neither Hitler, nor Stalin, nor Kim Jong-Un, but whose mustache was toothbrush, whose smile was sardonic to the p

Call to Arms

13971397 views1010 comments88 favs

I call upon all cashiers in dungarees... I call upon the baristas in rags... I call upon those whose sinister principles tax the weakness of their conscience... I call upon all those deracinated by dreaming big...

An Alphabet

13961396 views44 comments22 favs

A daydreams about a woman whose name he’s forgotten next to B, who’s been drunk since afternoon.

The 0th Parallel

13961396 views22 comments00 favs

These are the days you wish would never end.

A Conversation on an Empty Balcony

13961396 views22 comments11 fav

I go with the wind, like the smoke of this Marlboro red as it dances among the palm trees.

The Fourth Prague Defenestration: 16

13961396 views22 comments22 favs

I still wake up with a start to this day, remembering the sound of that squish. And the cheer from above of all the brutes hanging out the open castle window. And of course the roar of approval and delight from the hordes of Chinese, Russian, and Germ

It's My Birthday

13961396 views77 comments22 favs

and the President didn't call.

The Campus Socialists

13961396 views33 comments11 fav

The Campus Socialists Paul and Mary Jo lived in an apartment at the top of a long, dark flight of stairs that were so high, I remember as if it were yesterday thinking, the night she pushed him down the stairs, he would surely be dead by the time h

A Dutiful Daughter

13961396 views33 comments00 favs

The first indication I had of what I look like came when a man put me back on the rack, remarking that I was too pink. Over the weeks that followed, I gained a few more ideas about my appearance from the comments of people in the shop. My photographic side had been…

Sunday in Dogpatch, circa 1990

13961396 views22 comments22 favs

Inspired by the photographic work of Susan Lipper. Grapevine series, 1988-92. http://susanlipper.com/gv_23.html

Inheritance

13961396 views11 comment11 fav

I blame you for my short temper when I go off the handle when my blood runs cold and I can't think straight I can only react. When I say things I don't mean Even if I do. But I am glad for the fire you started inside of me. That time I…

Bardo

13961396 views88 comments77 favs

In the quiet dark, fathers reappear.

Now Lay in It

13961396 views33 comments11 fav

The phone rang again at midnight. Maury sat straight up in bed, a reflex from his days in the barracks. Linda, his wife, was already sitting up. In the hint of moonlight, she dabbed her nose with a wadded tissue and made helpless little noises. Maury…

Wheatfield with Cypresses. van Gogh

13961396 views00 comments11 fav

There's no sky like that with twisting clouds shot up into by cypress trees that are so like dark green flames leaping out of the earth as if a dark green oily pool were on fire underground, and this was all that could escape, was its essence.

Frankenstein's Monster Eats the Brains of Virgins at the Witches' Chainsaw Orgy Massacre

13961396 views55 comments22 favs

If Heaven holds forth its own Infinity, What of selves, of ours, could we stand to see? Cradled with harsh fangs of Memory, Deep forgetfulness, give rather me- Let bright dreams be our self's divinity: Forever holds, in morrow's hours, such little…

BACK IN THE USSUSSUSSR

13951395 views55 comments33 favs

It was on the Fake News today, Oh boy They built a bridge from Alaska to Siberia Called the Bridge Over Troubled Waters Instead of a wall And Putin came riding bareback on a pink unicorn Into the White House and renamed it The White Horse,

Commander of the Armies of the Four Winds

13951395 views00 comments00 favs

"Commander of the Armies of the Four Winds" concerns a nightmare endured by Commander Daniel Bennett of the San Diego Police Department after he is assigned to recover the stolen Necromancer Artifact, which purports to invoke nefarious spirits imprisoned

Duration and Frequency

13951395 views88 comments88 favs

for spirits and demons have no life/ but what imagination gives

Shards

13951395 views22 comments11 fav

But you're everywhere, how can I move on? It's so easy for people to say, Get over it, the ‘it' being the smell of your skin, your smile, the taste of your lips, always sweet and salty, like a carnival treat. Remember that neon night when we knew it was over, how we…

Groceries

13951395 views1212 comments00 favs

Your son is six feet tall in the sixth grade. By his sophomore year of high school, he outweighs you by a hundred pounds. He's been offered four football scholarships and one for a sport he's never played. Every morning his mother, your ex ex-wife, makes his breakfast of a…

My Flying Debris

13951395 views44 comments44 favs

a book of 5 poem-like things I made out of silly string and shot your way when you weren't exactly looking "..kisses are a far better fate/than wisdom."--E.E.CummingsContents:1.The Day's Thin Blue Swim-Suit2. The One Who Needed Let In Most3. I…

Anonymous Gamblers

13951395 views44 comments11 fav

1. They Don't Know When To Fold 'Em Gambling junkies are lit on losing their ass and almost can't wait to unload their money, and then reel on home and bounce off the walls or whatever. For these guys, losing's the jackpot, and deep in the hole for…

Dear Earth, On the Occasion of Your 40th Earth Day Birthday

13951395 views22 comments11 fav

Everyone is tromping around in work boots like an army of happy gardeners. The park is smiling from all this attention, from the sound of kids who think work is play. It's not even sunny but we don't mind. I know you don't. Grey days are just as good. They've…

Quitting Smack

13951395 views66 comments33 favs

I figured he knew what he was doing–he was the crazy one, after all, not me–so we took turns snorting lines of equal volume.

A Flat Sheet and One Standard Pillowcase

13951395 views00 comments00 favs

this is your hair, this is your stare, this is your voice

Carpe Mentis

13951395 views11 comment00 favs

machine utility of thought, intangible aesthetic of sentiment.

How Zin Prepares for Early Winter While Saint Bernards Cause Major Traffic Jams along East Houston

13951395 views1515 comments77 favs

She sings off-key while her married lover shadow-boxes his one-dimensional and split-off selves.