Most read stories

Apprehensions in the Garden of Gethsemane

13251325 views1010 comments99 favs

The thumb, incarnate, knows/ the moment of the misplaced hammer blow;/ the tongue, incarnate, the cool invigoration/ of water drawn from the dark well.

ALL THOSE YEARS

13251325 views11 comment11 fav

Joseph and his little brother, Kevin, were there again. Kevin was too small to understand what had happened yet. He would usually just go off, running around the statues and playing with the wreaths; the last time they'd visited he climbed a tree and broke one of the…

Linda Vs. Sound

13251325 views00 comments00 favs

Normally, after her shift, Linda would make herself a latte, untie her apron, and study at one of the tables. That evening, however, KEXP kept playing songs with grating guitar riffs, and loud laughers were everywhere. She chugged her coffee, burning her tongue. Then, she…

The Polish Worker

13251325 views44 comments11 fav

... and that’s the story of the Polish worker who looks like van Gogh.

Zum is one instance of "um" herein

13251325 views1010 comments66 favs

Millennium jumped strumming lithium gum cumulative outnumber humiliated résumé jumpy instruments

Excuse Me, I’m Writing a Poem Here?

13251325 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

Kafka, Smashed

13251325 views99 comments77 favs

perhaps I am only being transported not for replacement but for repair

BACK IN THE USSUSSUSSR

13241324 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,

The Dolly Boys

13241324 views11 comment11 fav

I have a fascination with Dickens and London and this was inspired by my next novel.

A Tale

13241324 views44 comments22 favs

But you don’t know how to fly, Bunny! How ever will we survive?

Shards

13241324 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…

Haikus for Miss Winehouse

13241324 views99 comments55 favs

Drag queens weep sequins

Mornings

13241324 views33 comments22 favs

Over the last years of her life, my mornings began when Mom decided to play. Sitting on her black, ball-and-claw stool, she'd raise the key cover, stretch her neck and shoulders, and take slow, deliberate breaths. A deep, meditative state descended over the room and…

Stan Smith

13241324 views88 comments55 favs

Ah we just sat on the flat roof of the school and looked out at what was beyond because sometimes there is nothin' to do but sit on a flat roof of a school and look out at what is beyond. Going up there I had told him to be careful with the bag because if he didn't take…

Poem before Video Store

13241324 views77 comments44 favs

Last night was full of little fists

The Fourth Prague Defenestration: 18

13241324 views11 comment11 fav

I went back to the Charles Bridge over the Vltava River and felt the plaque of the Wall of Gropers, and that was where we hatched our plan, in front of my ancestors. I could just feel their presence there. They would be with me, the Gropers of Prague.

Christmas Presents

13241324 views22 comments11 fav

There’s something Dad’s been telling us that I don’t think is true

afternoons

13241324 views99 comments22 favs

i think god composed afternoons with crayons

Pomegranate juice thief walks home

13231323 views88 comments66 favs

That is a six-word story. Notice that the meaning does not change with the word count. Syllabic count: pentameter (ten). Keep these commas.

An Alphabet

13231323 views44 comments22 favs

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

The Full Car: A California Saga (1968)

13231323 views00 comments00 favs

—They turned him into a time bomb. Listen close, and you can hear the tick-tick-tick. —All I hear is snoring. How do you know he was brainwashed? —Because he can’t remember a thing about the experiment. —I can say this: If he can’t remember anyth

Ode to an Afro (or Going Natural in a Corporate World)

13231323 views44 comments11 fav

In praise of the colorful flock with crowns of teased cotton candy rising high above Modular walls, stalled operating systems staling coffee and pale corner offices

Needles And Sins

13231323 views00 comments00 favs

They've put down roots under the dome. Want to push through the ceiling, blot out the sun. I have other plans.

Alice Can Derail You in 3/5ths of a Second

13231323 views2121 comments1111 favs

She connects to you via snarling vines & worm-woven tunnels. Drops Roman numerals

Soulspring, by Norman Klein.

13231323 views88 comments55 favs

The call came...

I Am the Cheap Man

13231323 views00 comments00 favs

I considered my choices, then asked the question that has brought my wife so much pain over the years. "Which is cheaper?"

Destiny Knocking - 2

13231323 views33 comments11 fav

. . . why did it take so long?

Aesthetic Strategy

13231323 views77 comments55 favs

it acquires a fine translucence

Something about that boy

13231323 views33 comments00 favs

There was something about the boy that made me uneasy. Maybe it was the reverse widow's peak on his forehead or the way he wiped away his snot with the back of his hand. It could have been his red flannel shirt that reminded me of the hillbillies from the mountain…

A Shower of Rain

13231323 views66 comments44 favs

You have at least an intermittent belief.