Most read stories

OUR NEXT BREAK

12181218 views22 comments00 favs

You welcome the new girl by putting a message on her back. I breathe harder until she pops or until you ask me what I’ve seen or until you see my hand turn into a fist.

September 26, 2016

12181218 views44 comments22 favs

whatever weaknesses you displayed// as empathetic human fellow traveler,/ your command of English survives you,// on into the last echoes of the human/ once we’re gone.

A Small Piece of the Night Life

12171217 views22 comments11 fav

It made him feel better to imagine she was someone else, someone he didn't know. This comfort bothered him

when-one-of-your-two-divorcing-dearest-friends-says-Choose-it-turns-out-both-is-not-an-option

12171217 views66 comments55 favs

fallout

sunflower 15

12171217 views22 comments22 favs

“plain before my eyes” said he eyes swathed in bandages covering sight oozing yellow fluid is this life thought i

Seance

12171217 views99 comments77 favs

communication/ with the dead

Tariff Happy

12171217 views1313 comments77 favs

Expose those for whom freedom is greed.

Either Side of the Glass

12171217 views22 comments22 favs

Why do you lie? the old woman repeats when her mouth is not busy filling the waste bin. We sit as far away from her wheedle and wretch as the small waiting room allows. A young woman glares at us through the mental health clinic's safety glass…

Arcade

12171217 views1111 comments88 favs

My father owned a penny arcade. I worked for him every summer all during my youth. My job was to hand green tickets to customers who achieved a certain score on Skee-Ball or shuffleboard. The coupons could be redeemed for merchandise which we had on display on…

The Forgotten Children...

12171217 views00 comments00 favs

His cheeks were extremely pink but the pink was not the shade usually associated with good health, it was the pink of Death.

Driving Through Mississippi Wearing a Chin Beard in 1964

12171217 views22 comments00 favs

Ah, the nerve of hot-blooded youth! But the drinking age was only 18 in New Orleans, and we couldn’t resist the call of all that legalized drinking (even though I had fake I.D’s my roommate at Urbana had given me.) You and I had already consecrated

Fix

12171217 views33 comments22 favs

I’m sorry. We couldn’t fix the country and left her a bigger mess than we found her Oil leaking from her shores earthquake batter all over her skin We couldn’t fix her, and we’re sorry You’ll find her wreck in tatters at the bus st

The Nude Pianist: A Novel: Chapter 19

12171217 views33 comments22 favs

—Michiko, are you allergic to cats?

My Brother's House

12171217 views33 comments00 favs

The last time my old lady threw me out, I decided to go and stay with my brother. I thought, "That's the last place I'll be welcome," and I knew that was true. The drive was calming, which was good, because Steven wouldn't have even let me in if I…

Desire

12171217 views33 comments22 favs

The young monk rose early to jog, his appetites trailing like cats in heat.

Excuse Me, I’m Writing a Poem Here?

12171217 views44 comments44 favs

I’m up to my kneecaps in mockery and swill, and … Excuse Me, I’m Writing a Poem here? Thank you. Sheesh! As I was saying, I’m up to my kneecaps in mockery and swill. And I meet someone who names all his fish after people he doesn’t l

An Alphabet

12161216 views44 comments22 favs

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

Fragment from an Unwritten Diary

12161216 views66 comments44 favs

It's not stories the quiet lack, but inclination...

Not Quite There Yet

12161216 views33 comments33 favs

You're not late yet, but if you don't move now, you will be. You close the cover of your mac book, don't even finish the sentence you were working on or close down the file. What had been of the utmost importance, clutching at your…

Star-eater; a poem

12161216 views55 comments44 favs

Star-eaterHere lies the star-eater.Tilting on the ancient wheelof summer-glaze-breath,you speak the oceans. Fire's the mealfor you, the star-eater. You defy death,and out of your mouth, a universe openspouring forth, as fleet as the starslight on your tongue. Space…

we used to drop her off along the way

12161216 views66 comments11 fav

We do it all the time...

Art Is Resilient

12161216 views11 comment11 fav

Our revolutionaries Have evolved into gamekeepers

Darkness On My Mind

12161216 views22 comments00 favs

Darkness on my mind doesn't make me blind.

Kwaazy Wabbit

12161216 views44 comments33 favs

destroy the day rip up the track jump in the water eat nothing but bugs

Gentility

12161216 views00 comments00 favs

The walls of our shanty were of the standard corrugated rusty metal typical of communities like ours.We did our cooking over a Bunsen burner purloined from the Catholic Boys' School - beans mostly. We did our drinking from bottles of Thunderbird or Old Crow (when…

The Fuckers

12161216 views1414 comments77 favs

The fuckers tumble out of the bathroom like clowns from a tiny car. The girl has these huge tits and dark red hair. She rushes past me, smelling like chocolate. A guy's behind her, holding onto the back of her jeans. He's not good looking enough to…

4:09 and American Music

12161216 views1010 comments33 favs

If you knew everything, you would not be able to sit on tropical balconies at 4:09 A.M., discovering a book and then the world for the first time If you were part of the spiritual set, and could astral travel far and wide, but neglected to open the door…

My First Love Messages Me On Facebook

12161216 views55 comments44 favs

He tells me that he thinks he reached out as he needed healing and I wonder if I should diagnose him on the spot, explain what years of therapy taught me about him. I don't. Instead I compliment a photograph of the pot plants he grows, organic,

The New Lycanthropy

12161216 views00 comments00 favs

Who remains after the aching night has departed into dawn and left us to week-old sleep

How To Give Dating Advice as a State Social Worker

12161216 views22 comments11 fav

I tell him if he wants to impress a girl he should learn to cook. He shifts his body. I add, crab cakes work well.