Most read stories

Alfamadog

13231323 views44 comments44 favs

It was that special ache between heart and stomach that made me stop things. That ache that cannot be caused by the mere knowledge that you have steered your life into a completely wrong direction. To feel this pain, you also need to have no clue why and how it…

Refugees

13231323 views55 comments33 favs

Somebody left CNN on all night long until the news cycle flipped, crashed and burned in its own ruins

Elite Arts Group Names Steve Miller 1st Rock Member

13231323 views00 comments00 favs

Miller exclaimed "Somebody give me a cheeseburger!"--a line from one of his hits--and members of the Academy broke out in knowing if subdued laughter.

The Nude Pianist: A Novel: Coda

13231323 views44 comments22 favs

—Man, what a tearjerker way to end an interview, said Ben.

Lassitude

13231323 views55 comments22 favs

It's morning, and the cold black hull of branches sets my resting pier, Amid this drizzle, underneath the poignant pain of birches, wrecked By floods of midyear grieving; wraithlike, Dawn's been becked To paint in shafts of faded rose that shades the fen…

She mentioned prayer in the Øilslick.xxx ZipperPoems

13231323 views00 comments00 favs

We transplant helix° splices and shoot back to meet our former selves, zip the scrolls, and save the world. Then you said spin so I twisted my jumper over and over in endless folds like lips, like vaginas, like seacreatures

A Man

13231323 views00 comments00 favs

He was lit up faintly.Standing in a room of golden proportions (which is not saying a lot), he was one stood man (which is). The only lamp, a seemingly old neon, hanging short from its chains, shone darkly above none. None but a five-feeted glass plane, upon which glossy…

The Hostage

13231323 views1212 comments88 favs

My mother should have been a minister or a peace officer. Instead, she was a homemaker who ran the home like an agency. There were certain hard and fast rules.

Edward Ogle the Dickinson

13231323 views33 comments22 favs

Hope is the thing playing checkers

Edward Ogle the fourth

13231323 views44 comments44 favs

Charted stars by the dozens / with a side of frizzle onions / dawn showers us with glitter.

My Daughter On Wolf Hill Farm

13231323 views11 comment11 fav

I survived as a brave thought,

Stroke One, Stroke Two, Stroke Three

13231323 views1616 comments1111 favs

On Monday, May 7, 2018, at the age of 67, I had a stroke.

We're The Atwoods

13221322 views11 comment00 favs

I remember a time when Calvin, my husband, was like Winnie the Pooh and I was a jar of fine Provençal honey. No amount of my sweetness could satisfy his craving for me. He would spread me on his toast with butter at breakfast and mix me with peanut butter

Diagnosis

13221322 views1010 comments55 favs

I am studying the way/ dust bunnies emerge, grow/ and apparently reproduce.

Timmy's Singularity

13221322 views55 comments44 favs

Suddenly, the room was filled with a screaming vortex directed at a pinpoint in the corner. Timmy's bureau was gone and everything loose in the room was flying towards the spot it had occupied. Timmy stood up in horror. He tried to seal this rent by tossi

Everything Foreign

13221322 views22 comments11 fav

In college, I made friends with my Jewish roommate. Her name was Leah and she was from Brooklyn. When she asked me home with her for Thanksgiving, she mentioned we could go to synagogue together. I asked if there would be other black people there. "No," Leah…

It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time

13221322 views66 comments11 fav

Eva stepped out of the hut she and Javier shared and slogged through the mud toward the coop to fetch fresh eggs for Javier's breakfast. None existed. Javier became angry when he didn't get his eggs. Eva slowed her pace as she neared the door. She knew wh

John of God, Painted by Murillo

13221322 views77 comments44 favs

NO ONE CAN BE A BASTARD FOREVER

Monsters and Me

13221322 views00 comments00 favs

Godzilla, Mothra, Kong, Rodan. Most people know these Giant Monsters through the movies. What the majority of the population doesn't understand is, that these are monsters are real. Like the myths of ancient times, these movies are just a way that our

Hey, Boys, Bandits!

13221322 views66 comments11 fav

I remember one time that summer I was with you (1964) going to a bar in maybe it was Melrose Park, or Northlake, or somewhere along Roosevelt Road closer to Chicago, not as far as Cicero though. I went there with a crazy gear-head named Roger Hudson, wh

My eHarmony Profile

13221322 views55 comments22 favs

I’m up to my ass in social media.

A Day in the Life of Mike

13221322 views33 comments11 fav

This is a very impromptu piece written at two in the morning based on a prompt from Meg Pokrass, who insisted the following words be used: fussyhairybloomingslipperyflutterdamppaleweedsyanking “Maxfuss” was his password, which was appropriate,…

The Shirt Library

13221322 views00 comments00 favs

I hate buying shirts. There's no point. You need a shirt, you go to the library.

The Buddhist

13221322 views33 comments22 favs

She is not centered, but she finds her way.

instead

13221322 views44 comments44 favs

instead of gun metal deceit, sounds of malice;be a drop of rain.

The Breakable Bonds

13221322 views66 comments33 favs

I signed up for functional I did not ask for this mixed bag of broken glass I have enough to swallow

My Brother's Bedroom

13221322 views11 comment00 favs

they say the sense of smell is the strongest sense connected to memory, but not for me

Deifying Gravity

13211321 views22 comments22 favs

This gravity thing, I reckon, is enamored with me. It loves me so much that it has fettered me with itself.

The Incident

13211321 views44 comments44 favs

There are some I don’t recognize. My gaze lingers for a second. It’s bad business this.

Midwestern Charm

13211321 views55 comments33 favs

He slathered the glue on my scalp and talked non-stop about Harlem. Electrodes or nodes, I never asked which, would measure something inside my head. I doubt they actually did though, measure anything. I've had the pleasure of having wires glued to my skull before and have…