Most read stories

Edward Ogle the fourth

13451345 views44 comments44 favs

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

Seasons of You

13451345 views55 comments22 favs

Summer, Spring, Winter, Fall, the Good Lord made them all.

My Daughter On Wolf Hill Farm

13451345 views11 comment11 fav

I survived as a brave thought,

Cause of Death

13451345 views00 comments00 favs

“You sure?” He nods. “Maybe it was pneuomonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.” Flash of a smile, sobbing laughter, like an abandoned seal.

forgiveness

13451345 views33 comments22 favs

she sees that no one has considered her needsshe feels left out, and so she strikes outon the offensive, nostrils flaringpoints her finger and makes her caseshe has been wronged, justified in her angershe will not back downthe accused one is hurtstrikes back with her own…

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

13451345 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…

The Rider

13451345 views22 comments00 favs

"The rider rode his bike in Arizona just about every day and for all the usual reasons....."

Fourth Time’s a Charm

13441344 views22 comments22 favs

We wait for a server to bring our coconut cream pie. His favorite. I hate coconut.

(Withheld) 1970

13441344 views00 comments00 favs

The Moon The hatch of the lunar module hissed as it opened, a few puffs of leftover water vapor escaped toward them in a sparkling white cloud that rapidly dissolved…

Learning to Live With Radical Presbyterians

13441344 views44 comments11 fav

Proponents of this pragmatic line of thinking say a tolerant approach to Islam will succeed where force has failed to persuade terrorists to abandon the religious fanaticism. It's certainly worth a try--it worked with Presbyterians.

My Gall Bladder is Really Warm Today

13441344 views11 comment00 favs

The English phrase "Nice to see you" translates into "My gall bladder is really warm today" in Berik, a language of New Guinea. What Language Is, John McWhorter

The Black Madonna

13441344 views1212 comments77 favs

They say I am filthy. On this high pillar I perch like a stuffed avian relic, flightless, no prey. The horizon before me is broken by scuff and foreign tongue, by atomized evil. Pleas, and there are many, are answered by the only prayer I know, the one prayer, which…

The Fields

13441344 views00 comments00 favs

Swat at those screeching children with tufts of harp-grass. Flail, mad eyed and sad sighed with all gleaming hope gone out of the daylight. Swat and screech swat and screech. We continue until their thick bark-like hides are smooth and polished. We sand them with…

Almost There

13441344 views66 comments33 favs

On the phone I asked my mother how she was doing. “I’m getting old,” she said. “Going slow. But getting there. I’m ninety-four!” My mother was always 94, when she was really 93. I remember she was 93 right after she turned 92. And 92

Fear

13441344 views99 comments44 favs

Fear I’ll be stuck here without a ladder

The Bricks

13441344 views00 comments00 favs

He ordered a palace built, and the builders came to blows, which is why the father’s eyes have swollen shut, and the oldest son’s knuckles are bright plums.

Mark Twain's Typewriter

13441344 views22 comments11 fav

Did I refer to Mark Twain’s typewriter as an animal? Did I call it a hyena? I would not say that about Mark Twain’s typewriter.

The Human Phenom Project

13441344 views44 comments55 favs

I sat at the vast graveyard of broken hearts on the mending fence of wonderment unsealing the silence of the wounds I began to put the pieces together like a puzzle against forgetting

Zero

13441344 views77 comments77 favs

The arithmetic of human experience/ is always a losing game for some. Poor Jane. Rich Dick.

the leisure to walk about sweetly

13441344 views00 comments00 favs

You seemed to have that leisure to walk about sweetly when I was with you, honey-singing the reward for the intensity of emotion you lunged about in. Nothing seemed like it was going to hurt or harm anyone, even while I was going nuts between the legs.

When the Germans Were on the Roof of the World

13441344 views66 comments66 favs

Flew a Messerschmitt. Drove a tank over people in Poland though not in Prague, and claimed he was never a guard at the death camps.

The Hitler Channel

13441344 views77 comments11 fav

The sound of a siren approaches his home. His wife asks him why he's so nervous. It's nothing, he says, but he rises from the couch and peers into the night from behind the curtains. The siren approaches relentlessly. The road twists and turns and the sound fades but always…

Full of Mad Hope

13441344 views1212 comments22 favs

full of mad hope / we dash into the street / leap into the fray / and enter splendiferous lists

instead

13441344 views44 comments44 favs

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

Carmen Scarpino, Pioneering Wise Guy, Dead at 78

13431343 views00 comments00 favs

Breasts were developed after World War II, the result of improved nutrition and the additional muscle mass that “Rosie the Riveter”-types acquired through manual labor in jobs that males abandoned to join the war effort.

Dreams Bright White Smash

13431343 views00 comments00 favs

She was there then gone then there again. We were naked and wet and touching, she let me touch her, but she didn't want to be there. But she was, despite herself. It was my dream. You can go if you want. …

Duration and Frequency

13431343 views88 comments88 favs

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

Mo Band Names

13431343 views66 comments33 favs

Her Majesty’s Glasses Umbilical Chord Linger Finger Okay Inkjet The Dragon Flies Horny Free Spirit Good Footnote Buttery Clams You’reUp Empty Bladder Star Butter Karmic Impulse Mr. On-the-Ve

Nothing But Neat at the NBA All-Star Game

13431343 views00 comments00 favs

“I’m sure he meant no disrespect,” LeBron said, playing the peacemaker. “For example, I used to be ‘The Chosen One’ but I changed my nickname to ‘Chip’. Like it?”

Mother's Day

13431343 views44 comments22 favs

By lunch: The dryer is an F-5 dervish of mismatched socks, blue jeans and your yellowing college T's, lovingly held onto. For a moment there is a comforting warmth and softness to their smell. In the debris strewn landscape of the living room a carcass